Naruto: Wave Vacation
by JodahTAME
Summary: After failing to retrieve Sasuke from going over to Orochimaru, Naruto and the gang are sent on a vacation to wave country. Humor and action to follow soon! Pairings guaranteed are NaruXHina. R&R. TY.
1. Chapter 0: A Deserved Vacation

This story takes place after episode 135 in an alternate universe where Naruto never goes with Jiraiya. Instead Tsunade sends the rookie 8 (since Sasuke's gone) and Team Gai to the wave country for some R&R. This is an action/comedy/ and maybe romance if we feel like it. Hope you enjoy.

**Chapter 0: A Deserved Vacation**

Tsunade sat in her office, reading over the recent reports from yesterdays completed missions. She closed her eyes, sat back in her chair, and laid the current report on top of her desk. She reached forward and took her cup of warm sake from the desk. She took a long sip of the warm sake felt her body warm slightly as the drink ran down her throat. Her eyes closed, she contemplated on the report she had just finished reading.

She couldn't believe how close all those kids had come to dieing. It was hard to pull Chouji and Neji back from the brink of death. _'Thank Kami'_ she thought, '_I would never forgive myself if they had perished.'_ She read all the reports about each ninjas' fight against the Sound 5. If she had not called in the assistance of the Sand-nin, all would have been lost. '_I'll make it up to them. I'll give them a real treat. I know it is risky with the village as weak as it is right now, but I owe it to them.'  
_

One week later…..

The Rookie 8 and Team Gai, minus Gai-sensei, sat outside the Hokage's office, each holding a letter sealed with the Hokage's personal seal. Shizune stepped out of the office and looked at the people gathered there.

"Tsunade-sama is ready to see you now," she said with a smile on her face. She held the door to the Hokage's office open and shooed the young ninja inside. Each of the kids stood next to each other and waited to hear Tsunade's announcement.  
"Hey, Baa-chan, what's this all about?" called Naruto. Tsunade's eye twitched at Naruto's name for her but she shrugged it off.

"I'm glad to see you all here. I want to thank you for coming here today. I have a special assignment for all of you. Due to the recent activities of Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, Inuzuka Kiba and Akamaru, and Uzumaki Naruto, I have decided to send you all on a most expenses paid trip to the Wave country." She looked towards Naruto after having said "most expenses paid", as she remembered Iruka's stories of how much ramen Naruto could put down.

"Tsunade-sama, how can you afford to do this? I thought the village was still suffering from Orochimaru's attack?" asked Neji.

"True, the village has not fully recovered from that incident and most likely will not for some time. However, due to my error in ranking your mission so low and sending only genin and one chuunin on it, I feel you all have earned this vacation. I am sending you all together to ensure you all have fun, rest up, and relax for one week in the Wave country. I do not wish to make this an order but I will if I have to."

"Tch, how troublesome." said Shikamaru.

_'A whole week with Naruto-kun?' _Hinata's face blushed a mild crimson at the thought of spending time with Naruto.

The group sat quietly and stared at Tsunade, then at each other. Naruto looked back at Tsunade and let a huge grin spilt across his face, his eyes shined bright.

"Thank you, Tsunade-baa-chan! This is great!" Naruto turned to look at all his teammates; his energy brought forth smiles to their faces. Even Sakura managed to bring out a smile. "Baa-chan, when can we leave?" Naruto was raring to go and revisit the Wave country. He had not seen it since Team 7 beat Zabusa and Haku, which allowed the tiny island to complete the bridge. He eagerly looked forward to seeing his old friends again.

Tsunade glared at Naruto after being called baa-chan again, barely able to let it slide this time. "Preparations have already been made. You will all leave tomorrow morning. I have sent messengers ahead to prepare your accommodations. You will find your allowances for the week waiting for you when you arrive. Enjoy your vacation. Its going to be your last for a while I am afraid." With that Shizune began to herd the ninja out of the Hokage's office and sent them moving back to their homes.

"Enjoy your trip. Oh, and bring me something back, okay?" She smiled down at Naruto.

"You got it, Shizune!" Naruto ran out the front door and caught up with his friends. He slowed down to keep pace with the gang. Everyone but Shino was engaged in discussion about what they planned on doing once they were in the Wave country. As they walked, the large group began to splinter off. Each person took a different route back to their respective houses. Before Naruto realized it, he was alone with Hinata, walking towards her home.

"Hey, Hinata, where did Neji go? He still lives with all the other Hyuugas, right?" Naruto, his arms behind his head, looked over to Hinata, barely noticed her blush and downcast gaze.

"Y-yes, Naruto-kun, however he has s-started to t-train more with Tenten after t-training with Gai-sensei and Lee-san." Hinata blushed deeper when she realized she was still stuttering. She was able to suppress it more often these days but when she was around Naruto she could no longer keep it under control.

"Umm, N-Naruto-kun, I-I was w-wondering if you had any plans f-for when you go to the W-Wave Country?" Hinata's blush covered her entire face in the darkest shade of red a human body can become. _'How could I ask him something like that? Of course he has plans. He wouldn't have time to hang out with me. He thinks that I am too weird and shy. Oh, Kami, what have I done?'_

Naruto looked back towards Hinata and saw her looking down at her feet, fingers pressed against each other. _'She sure is weird. Why does she always look at the ground, and do that thing with her fingers? Whatever.'_ "Not really. I was just going to visit a few old friends I know there and hang out at the beach and eat ramen."

"Old f-friends?"

"Yeah, I met them on my mission to the Wave country long ago. It will be great to see them again." Naruto stretched his arms above his head and let them fall back to his sides. He remembered escorting Tazuna back to Wave country and how the mission became much more difficult than had originally been thought. He recalled the first time they had fought Zabuza and then the chakra control training when they climbed the trees. Finally, the memory of the final fight on the bridge between Haku and Zabuza and how they had finally met their end.

"I-I never knew you went t-to the Wave Country, Naruto-kun." Hinata continued to stare at the ground. She put all her effort into controlling her fingers and forced her hands down to her sides out of touching range. They were almost to the Hyuuga compound now and Hinata knew her time with Naruto was drawing short.

"Yeah, it was our first mission ranked above a D. It was first classed as a C but it increased to a B after we learned the man we were hired to protect was in more danger than he let on. Then when Zabuza got involved it jumped all the way to an A rank. I'll have to tell you about it some time. I know! When we head out tomorrow, I can tell you all about it and Sakura-chan can help fill in the details of my awesomeness." Naruto grinned and laughed.

"I w-would like that, Naruto-kun." They had finally reached the main gate that lead to the Hyuuga compound. Naruto escorted Hinata to the gate and watched as the guards opened the gate for her.

"See you tomorrow Hinata. Take care." With that silly grin on his face he offered his parting words to Hinata before he leapt into a tree and off towards his house. Hinata walked past the gates into the Hyuuga compound and the guards locked the gates back up, preventing access to outsiders.

Naruto made his way home as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop with practiced ease. He added chakra for one last leap and released it, which caused him to fly through the air. He landed on all fours in his room as he leapt through his open window. He quickly brushed any dirt off of himself, and walked straight to the kitchen. He pulled out the heater and set a pot of water to boil.

He took off his shirt and threw it in the pile of laundry lying in the center of the room. Once the water heated, he poured it into an open container of Cup-O-Ramen. Whilst he waited for those three minutes time it took to cook said ramen, Naruto went to his room and grabbed his traveling bag.

'_An expenses paid trip! I can't believe Baa-chan would spring for this. I'll have to bring her back a present too._' He pulled a few spare outfits from his closet, threw them in the bag, and pounded them down until they barely fit.Naruto's nose detected the sweet scent of finished ramen and bolted back to his table to eat his dinner. He had waited for this for many days since the people at the hospital would not allow him to eat ramen.

Just as Naruto was about to take that first delectable bite of ramen a knock was heard from his door. Unbelievably, curiosity got the better of Naruto's ramen craving. He placed the chopsticks back in the cup and walked back to his door. He slowly opened the door and was surprised to find Sakura there.

"Sakura-chan, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be home getting packed?" Naruto couldn't believe that the girl he has had a crush on for so many years was standing just outside his apartment door.

"I already finished my packing. I came over to make sure you were all set. I know you can over do it a bit if left by yourself." She smiled at him as she said this which made him a little self conscious. "So, can I come in?"

Naruto's eyes widened and he looked back into his apartment. He realized just how messy it was. "Uh, sure, give me one moment." Naruto slammed the door, quickly performed the Shadow Clone Technique, and made ten clones of himself. Each broke off to do a certain task; one picked up laundry, several cleaned the bathroom, the kitchen, and living room, washed the dishes, and made a second cup of ramen. After two minutes of quick work the place was clean enough to make the apartment look livable.

Naruto slipped on an old black t-shirt with a red spiral in the middle of it before he walked back to the door. He opened the door and put on a big goofy grin. "Come on in, Sakura-chan."

Sakura walked in and took in Naruto's apartment. She was amazed by how Spartan it was. There was color to the walls but there was a definite lack of furniture and pictures. She felt a small pang of guilt as she thought of how lonely this place feels. She looked back to Naruto who had moved to the kitchen to check on his meal.

"So, Naruto, what all have you packed?" called Sakura from the living room.

Naruto stepped out of the kitchen, his ramen in one hand, chopsticks in the other, and ramen noodles hanging from his mouth. He quickly slurped them up before he answered Sakura. "I just put a few changes of clothes in my bag. That is all I had time for before my ramen was done." He sent his chopsticks back on their mission, and with their successful completion, pulled a large amount of noodles from the steaming broth which he quickly ate up. With one gulp he devoured the noodles and brought the ramen cup to his lips to finish his meal.

"I have some more ramen if you want some Sakura-chan." Naruto's smile filled the room as the delicious meal filled his belly.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun, but I already had dinner. I appreciate the offer. Let's go see about finishing up your packing before it becomes too late, okay?"

"Sure, this way." Naruto lead Sakura to his room where he had left his travel bag. What he didn't know was that that was where all his clones had retreated to after they finished cleaning. When Naruto opened the door he found his clones sitting around going through his stuff as they tried to pack the bag themselves. The clones had tried, in vain, to place more clothes and a few kunai in the bag. He quickly dismissed them before they could cause anymore problems.

Sakura giggled as Naruto looked back, embarrassed. She walked to the overstuffed bag and began to pull everything out. Naruto took the items she pulled out and laid them out on the floor into piles for shirts, pants, and other. Once the bag was empty Sakura dictated what Naruto should pack. As she said her checklist Naruto would grab the item, fold it and place it in the bag. After ten minutes he had a fully packed bag with enough clothes for a week, extra food just in case, and a few extra ninja accoutrements. Sakura did a quick inspection to make sure the bag was packed properly before she smiled her confirmation of a job well done.

"Thank you Sakura-chan. I've never been too good at packing. I never had much practice before I became a ninja." He had that smile on his face but she could see the look of sadness in his eyes. She thought of how he never had a family to go on trips with.

"It is no problem, Naruto-kun. I think we need to help each other out right now, more than ever." She sat next to Naruto and laid her head on his shoulders, her hand came to rest on top of his. "You're the only one I can depend on to help me bring Sasuke back. I know that you are the only one who can bring him back home where he belongs."

Naruto smelled the scent of her shampoo from her hair and his hand tingled from the soft skin of Sakura's hand. He took a deep breathe to calm himself down. '_She's in love with Sasuke, damn it! You need to let go, she only has eyes for him.' _

"Don't worry Sakura-chan. I promised I would bring him back. One day, after I have trained, I will bring him back, and we can be a family again." He flashed Sakura his grin and gave her a thumbs up. Sakura smiled back and nodded her head.

"Thank you, Naruto-kun." She looked past the boy to his clock and a small eep escaped her lips. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I have to go. My mom will be wondering where I am." She stood up, brushed her clothes, and started to walk to the front door. Naruto leapt up and followed her.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, it is pretty dark out. Would it be okay if I walked you home?"

"Thanks, Naruto, but I'm fine. Konoha is still a safe and peaceful town. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight Naruto-kun."

"Goodnight Sakura-chan." Naruto watched Sakura walk down the street until she turned a corner and left his sight. He closed his door and walked back to the kitchen to eat the second cup of ramen he had waiting there. Once the meal was complete he went off to his room and passed out on the bed with thoughts of all the fun and ramen he would have this week.

The Next Day…..

The group of ninja met the next morning in front of the city gates just as the sun was crawled up past the trees. Light rained down on the gates of Konoha that showed the gates in all their mighty glory. Each of the young ninja had a light backpack strapped to their back, or hung easily on a shoulder. The gate guards waved at the youngsters as they left Konaha's walls. The teenagers waved at the guards as they passed through the gates and began their journey.

"Alright! Let's go!" Naruto shouted as he took a small lead before he pointed his finger down the road. A smile covered his face, with his eyes closed, that gave him a mischievous fox grin.

"And just who made you the leader, eh?" demanded Kiba, Akamaru barked his support of his master. Naruto turned around and set off the first of several arguments for the trip.

"So troublesome they are." Shikamaru walked past the two morons and let his eyes gaze up at the early morning clouds. Chouji moved to keep pace with Shikamaru as he opened a new bag of BBQ Potato Chips. They were followed by Shino, Sakura, Neji, Tenten, and Ino, who moved to join their advancing comrades. Hinata hesitated and watched the unpredictable ninja and dog user exchange words before she decided it would be best to move on. She caught up to the main group and she worked her way next to the girls. She listened to Sakura's and Ino's conversation.

Kiba and Naruto began to square off for a small tussle until Kiba looked behind Naruto to see the backs of their friends as they moved off into the distance. He quickly leapt over Naruto, and raced to catch up to his friends. Naruto turned around and ran after Kiba jumped into the air with a shout of glee.

_**End of Chapter 0**_

Hey, it's the end of my first fic and first chapter. Please leave a review, helps me know what you think I can improve on, or need to fix. Enjoy the next chapter:


	2. Chapter 1: Wave Country and Ramen

Thanks for reading Chapter 0! Hope you enjoy this chapter, will be much more action and comedy. Enjoy.

**CHAPTER: 1**

**The Wave Country Plus Ramen!**

It was a rather uneventful trip except for the constant arguments of Kiba and Naruto. Other than that not much had occurred and the eleven had a peaceful walk to the Wave country. When they began to get close to the Wave Country's borders Naruto remembered that he had told Hinata he would tell her about his first trip into Wave Country. He slowed down his pace until he was walking next to her near the back of the group.

Naruto and Hinata walked together, slightly behind the rest of the gang, because Naruto had slowed down in order to demonstrate to Hinata what happened. Naruto created four shadow clones and had them use a transformation technique to make them appear like the people in the story.

"So this masked ninja, Haku," Naruto pointed to the clone wearing an ANBU mask, "was beating down Sasuke with these throwing needles and these strange ice mirrors, then Sakura threw a kunai towards the masked ninja but he caught it. Then I threw a shuriken to his face! If it wasn't for that mask he had on I would have got him. That is when I showed up in this huge puff of smoke making a dramatic entrance!" So Naruto continued the story all the way to the end where team 7 left the wave country. Hinata listened intently to Naruto's story and enjoyed the antics and terrible acting of the clones. She suppressed a sniffle when Naruto arrived to the part where Zabuza and Haku met their end.

Sakura had over heard Naruto telling the story of Team 7's first real mission. "Sasuke....." she said with a sigh. Every time Naruto mentioned his name she would become a bit more depressed and lost in memories of her old teammate. Just as Naruto finished his story all the other ninja found it hard to believe what they considered an overly exaggerated story. They quickly changed their minds when they finally arrived at the bridge.

Every one of the young ninja, minus Naruto and Sakura, stopped in their tracks when they saw the bridge. "What the Hell!?" They exclaimed as they saw a sign on the side support beam that said "THE GREAT UZUMAKI NARUTO BRIDGE"

"See Hinata, they named the bridge after me!" Naruto said with his usual smile as he pointed at the sign. His actor clones returned to non-existence in a small puff of smoke. The bridge was packed full of merchants and tourists, which showed the wave country's improvement since Team 7's mission.

The gang continued to walk into town, some still in complete shock about the bridge's name, as they looked for the hotel they were to stay at. The town was full of life and commerce, shops now lined the entire town, vendors walked around with their carts, offering odd little knickknacks at "Unbeatable prices!" Naruto was busy looking for a ramen stand when he noticed a sign that pointed to the Red Ocean Hotel, and everyone could see the beach located right behind it.

"WOW! IT'S RIGHT NEXT TO THE BEACH!!" Naruto yelled "This is going to be great." The group entered the hotel's lobby and quickly scanned their surroundings, some habits of ninja life never being forgotten even during a vacation. This particular hotel did not look cheap in the least; bell hops, an area for dinning, a high class kitchen (Naruto considered it to be less than because they did not serve ramen), the works for a 4 star hotel.

The Konoha ninja stopped their examination of the hotel lobby and made their way to the front desk. Shikamaru took the lead and rang the bell on the counter to got the receptionists attention.

Shikamaru said, in his lazy way, "We're the ninja from Konoha. I believe we have a reservation." The clerk smiled and nodded her head. She turned around and grabbed 5 sets of keys from their holders and gave them to Shikamaru. She also pulled an envelope from a drawer and gave it to him. Shikamaru took the envelope and keys back to his friends. Naruto and the others formed a circle around Shikamaru.

"Tch, how troublesome, there are only five keys...." Shikamaru muttered. "What a drag. Two people will have to share a room and one room will have three people."

_**'What if Naruto-kun and I ended up sharing a room?' **_thought Hinata, her face blushed at the thought, and her face turned towards the ground.

'_**Man, if a girl and I shared a room, hehe, we could have all kinds of fun,' **_thought Kiba, as a smile appeared on his face after a quick scan of the young ladies of the group.

inH

"Well, the girls and boys will obviously be in separate rooms," said Tenten. Shikamaru took two of the keys and handed them to Tenten. Tenten tossed one of the two keys to Sakura, who caught it easily.

"Girls, always so troublesome, you can figure this out on your own." And with that Shikamaru headed over to the males of the group.

Shikamaru took one of the keys and gave it to Chouji, "Chouji and I will share a room, obviously, since we are teammates." He proceeded to give a key to Neji and then the last one to Naruto "I trust you two to settle the last of the room arrangements." Shikamaru and Chouji grabbed their bags and headed on up to their room. Naruto looked at Kiba, then Lee. His head slowly turned his gaze came upon Shino, who has yet to actually say a word this whole trip.

"Umm, hey Neji, do you think you could take Shino with you? That guy creeps me out." Neji visibly twitched as he thought of the bug user in his room.

"Naruto, I shall share a room with Lee since we are teammates like Shikamaru and Chouji. That leaves Kiba and Shino to be in the same room as you." Naruto turned to Neji and yelled "That's not fair! I don't have any guy teammates left!!"

Sakura looked at the ground after hearing Naruto's remark. "Sasuke..." she said under her breath. Ino saw the look on her friends face and walked over to her, whispered a few words in her ear before she grabbed their bags and moved towards the elevators.

"Look, that guy scares me; he's staying with you Neji." Naruto continue to try to get Neji to take Shino with him. As this was said Shino walked by them both, went to the front desk and requested another room. The clerk gave him a key and Shino moved towards the stairs.

"Hey guys, it seems Shino's taken care of it." Kiba said as he pointed at the silent shinobi as he walked to his room.

"Well, I guess I'm with Kiba." said Naruto.

"I guess that leaves us two, eh Hinata?" asked Tenten, a smile on her face. "Come on, we can talk about Neji and watch some chick flicks."

"H-Hai, Tenten-san." Hinata nodded and followed Tenten up the stairs to their room. The young ninjas quickly went to their rooms to settle themselves in and unpack their bags. They left their gear and clothes in their rooms; none of them actually bothered to unpack before they regrouped in the lobby. All the girls gathered together and talked about what they should do. The boys formed their own circle and put forth the same question to each other. Suddenly, from the girls came a shout of "SWIMSUIT SHOPPING!"

Hinata blushed. '**N**_**aruto will see me in a swimsuit'.**_She began to push her fingers together and looked at the floor.The guys nodded, firmly agreed to that plan, and followed the girls to go shopping for swimwear.

The gang searched around the hotel for a decent clothing shop. After a quick look around they settled on a shop that was located not to far from their hotel. It seemed to be the only shop with reasonably priced outfits. The girls looked carefully at the suits in search of some nice two piece outfits. That is, except for Hinata. She browsed through the store's one piece rack but did not find an outfit that really felt right.

The guys simply picked out some swim trunks. Naruto chose a pair of bright orange swim trunk with red swirls on the front legs, Neji chose a basic black design, Shikamaru chose white, Chouji chose a light blue that resembled the chakra wings he formed after he ate the red pill, and Kiba chose a brown pair. Lee terrified everyone with what he had chosen to wear. He stepped out of the changing room wearing a dark green speedo that seemed as though it was cut out of his usual green spandex outfit

The girls stepped into the stores changing room and tried on the different bikinis that they had picked out, except for Hinata who was trying on a one-piece she had found. Sakura had decided on cherry red bikini with cherry blossom pattern and a mesh wrap skirt of the same design, Tenten found a pink set with small hearts with a tankini top and Ino went with a yellow crop top tee and moderate bikini bottoms. Hinata had pulled a black one-piece swimsuit to try on but the others girls secretly decided that Hinata needed their invaluable assistance. Ino reached under the door, stole Hinata's regular clothes, and left her an indigo bikini with a tankini top and embellished cotton skirt. The girls refused to give back Hinata's clothes until she put the outfit on.

Hinata sat for several minutes before she decided to get this over with quickly and put on the outfit. She slowly went outside the dressing room, looking for the other girls so she could get her clothes back. However, at that moment, as she left the dressing room, Naruto walked by. He looked at Hinata and his gaze went up and down before settling back on her face, which at this point was completely red.

"Hey, Hinata, nice out fit. It looks good on you. Is that what you are going to wear to the beach?" Naruto said in his usual fashion. He was back in his normal clothes going to the check out counter with his suit in his arms. Hinata went and turned another shade of red. She used almost all her will to keep herself from fainting right then and there.

"I-if you r-really think it looks g-good N-N-Naruto-kun, then I guess I will get t-this one." she said shyly. Her gaze was on the floor as her fingers pressed once more against each other. She refused to meet Naruto's eyes because she knew she would be unable to hold off the fainting spell if she were to look at him.

"Yeah, it looks great on you Hinata. I'd say it looks better than what Sakura's wearing," Naruto said. Naruto went to catch up with the other guys after he payed for his trunks. The kunoichi had hidden behind some of the clothing racks and watched the exchange between Naruto and Hinata. They came out of hiding when Naruto had left and returned Hinata clothes. They also handed back the original one piece they thought she was going to buy. Hinata changed back into her normal clothes and surprised the three female ninja when she purchased the other outfit.

As expected, Shino didn't get anything. He had shown a small interest in a pair of trunks with centipedes and millipedes on them, but knew that his bug friends would not enjoy the water. He left the store and followed the others back to the hotel.

The gang quickly changed at the hotel into their newly acquired outfits (except for Shino) and then went down to the beach. Naruto, Lee, Ino, and Tenten ran down to the beach while the rest walked. Luckily the beach was not very crowded and everyone was able to find a good spot to relax or had plenty of room to act a fool. Hinata placed a white blanket she had brought with her down on the sand. Next she placed a red beach umbrella above the top of the towel to block the sun and rested in the shade afforded by the umbrella.

Hinata laid back on the blanket, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the warmth of the day and the gentle breeze from the sea. A loud thump occurred near to Hinata, causing her to sit up and check around her. She looked to her right and saw a small picnic basket. Next to that picnic basket stood Sakura in her red bikini. Sakura laid out a blanket next to Hinata's and stuck an umbrella in the ground. She looked over at Hinata and smiled.

"I hope you don't mind me setting up next to you," said Sakura.

"Of course not Sakura-san. I would be happy if you joined me." Hinata smiled at Sakura then looked down at the basket. "What's in there?"

"Oh, it is only just a few drinks and snacks. I brought them in case I got a bit thirsty or hungry. Would you like some?" Sakura reached to the basket and opened the lid. Inside Hinata saw a variety of soft drinks, a few bags of potato chips, and a red apple. Hinata pointed at the apple and Sakura reached in and pulled it out, and gently tossed it to her. Hinata easily caught it and looked at the apple over before taking the first bite. She enjoyed the deliciousness of the apple and swallowed that first bite.

"Mmmm, arigato Sakura-san. It's delicious." Hinata smiled and took another bite.

"Hinata-san, we've known each other since the first day of school. Please, call me Sakura-chan." Hinata looked at Sakura and smiled, nodding her head. Sakura pulled out a can of soda, popped the top, brought it to her lips, and enjoyed a nice long drink.

"Hai, Sakura-chan. However, I insist that you call me Hinata-chan also." Sakura lowered the can and nodded at Hinata.

"You got it, Hinata-chan. Ne, Hinata-chan, where is everybody? I lost track of them after I went to get the snacks.

"Oh, well over there is Shino-kun." Hinata pointed to the ninja as he knelt in the sand close to the shore. What truly surprised them was the amazing sand castle he was had built. The best way to describe it is the magical world of Disney castle. He was putting the finishing touches on one of the outer walls while his bugs assisted him as they smoothed out the walls and secreted a substance to add to the integrity of the castle.

"Wow, would you look at that? That is amazing," said Sakura, as she and Hinata stared in amazement at the structure. Sakura got her mind back on track and asked, "What about the others?"

"I'm not sure. I saw them go into the shack over there, but I did not see them come out."

"KAWABUNGA!" Out on the waves Sakura and Hinata could clearly see Naruto, Kiba, Neji, Lee, Tenten, and Ino on surfboards.

Kiba was on a black and red surfboard, his dog, Akamaru carefully perched at the front while he barked with joy. Ino had a yellow surfboard that matched her hair. Tenten was next; her bright pink surfboard easily maneuvered through the waves. After her was Lee, who proudly showed off his stuff, both his moves and otherwise. Hinata and Sakura giggled as a wave poured over him and causing him to be thrown off his bored.

Suddenly Sakura and Hinata gasped. Neji rode a pure white surfboard and easily swept through the waves as he did flips and spins. Neji caught a huge wave, easily crested to the top of it, and rode it out. '_**Where and when did he learn to do that?**__'_ wondered Hinata.

Lastly came Naruto. His blonde hair, orange swim trunks and orange surfboard easily recognizable at any distance. He rode a wave easily and wore a smile that ran from ear to ear. After he caught sight of Sakura and Hinata, Naruto started to perform a wide assortment of tricks on the board. First he stood on one foot, flipped to where he stood on one hand, followed by a flip and where he landed back on his board. Hinata and Sakura smiled and cheered him from the beach.

'_**If they thought that was cool, wait till they see this**__!_' Naruto quickly preformed the Shadow Clone Technique and formed multiple Naruto clones on the board. They quickly formed a pyramid and had the real Naruto stand on the top. He gave a big thumb up, and continued his antics. Next the clones switched positions and formed a long line up into the air. Finally, they repositioned once more and made a reversed pyramid with one clone on the bottom to support the others. All went well until the Narutos' hit a small swell that caused them to become unstable. Suddenly a powerful wave swept in and blew the Narutos off the bored and sent them back to the beach. When the wave finally settled, all its force expended on the shore, Naruto drifted onto the beach with his face towards the sky, and a dazed look in his eyes.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata and Sakura said at the same time and rushed to his side. Before they could get to him Naruto started to rise. He rolled over and got on all fours. He looked up at the worried faces of Hinata and Sakura and smiled. He gave them a thumbs up. Suddenly a new wave crashed into the beach and it brought Naruto's surfboard with it. The board crashed into the back on the blonde's head, which sent his face straight into the dirt, his body went limp.

"Oh, Kami. Naruto!" Hinata and Sakura rushed to Naruto as fast as the young girls' legs would carry them. Hinata pulled the genin's head out of the sand. Naruto spit the sand out of his mouth before passing out and his eyes rolled in the back of his head. "Sakura-chan, what do we do?"

Sakura quickly looked around the beach. Her eyes stopped on a sign that hung from a small building a short ways away and took off running towards it. Hinata stared, confused as to why Sakura ran off. Sakura reached the front of the building which had the top half of the wall removed, a small counter installed and four stools to sit on. Inside she saw two men, one wiping down the counter, the other standing in front of a pot of hot water.

"I have a ramen emergency. I need a bowl of miso pork ramen and I need it NOW!" Sakura yelled. The two people looked at her for a moment before they burst into action. The one who was wiping the counter grabbed a bowl from the shelf while the one that manned the stove pulled a strainer full of noodle and tossed it in the air followed by a ladle full of broth. The one with the bowl skillfully caught the noodles and broth not spilling a drop, placed a pair of chopstick on top of the bowl, and handed the bowl to Sakura. She ran back to the spot where Naruto had passed out, his head lay in Hinata's lap. She kneeled before the blonde boy and waved the bowl under his nose.

Naruto's eyes popped open as the smell of his favorite food snapped him out of his coma. He quickly sat up and grabbed the bowl from Sakura.

"Itadakimasu!" shouted Naruto, as he snapped the chopsticks apart before he dug in. After his first mouthful he looked at the two faces looking at him. First he saw Hinata. A look of happiness and relief on her face as she looked at him. Next, he saw Sakura. At first he saw a look of relief on her face too, but it was quickly followed by one of anger.

Sakura quickly stood up and hit Naruto on his head, causing him to drop his chopsticks in his ramen bowl, that hand previously held them went to hold his wounded head.

"Baka! Don't ever do that again. I can't believe you'd pull a stupid stunt like that. Errr!" Sakura turned around and strode off back to her beach blanket.

"I am g-glad you are s-safe, Naruto-kun." Hinata smiled at the excitable boy, truly glad he had not been hurt. Naruto looked back at her and smiled in return.

"Thanks Hinata. Ne, Hinata, why don't you try surfing. It's a blast. I guarantee you'll love it. If Neji can do it, I know you can too." Naruto rose out of the sand and returned his attention to the ramen so it would not grow cold. Amidst the slurping of noodles Hinata's face flushed as the blood rushed to the vessels close to her skin and turned her bright red.

'_**Naruto thinks I can do anything Neji can? I trust him. If he says I can, then I believe I can too**__.'_ Hinata rose from the sand, unable to look the blonde in the eyes. "Th-thank you N-Naruto-kun. I w-will try i-it." She bowed and hurried off to the surfing shack to get a board. She hoped they had one she liked.

Naruto watched Hinata leave, and finished his bowl of ramen. He took the bowl with him to where Sakura sat, her arms wrapped around her and her head down as she glared at the sand. He sat down next to her and placed the bowl on the towel away from anyone's arms and legs. He looked over at Sakura, considered his words, and then spoke.

"Oy, Sakura-chan, I'm sorry for worrying you. But you have to admit it was pretty cool! At least until I wiped out." Sakura continued to glare at the sand and ignore Naruto. Naruto pondered what he should do when suddenly he was struck with an idea. A huge evil grin split his face. He raised his hands above his head, palms open wide, and then he struck.

"NARUTO! HAHAHAHA. S-stop, haha, y-ou haha know I'm hahaha I'm tick hahaha ticklish hahahaha!" Sakura's laughter filled the air as her anger dissipated from Naruto's "attack." "Alright, Naruto, ahaha, I give, haha, I give."

Naruto ceased his offensive and relaxed next to his friend when he saw her smile again. "Glad you're feeling better Sakura-chan. I don't want to see you sad or angry."

"Thanks, Naruto. I just got worried seeing you there, you know. After Sasuke left…" Sakura's head began to droop again as she thought of the Uchiha. Naruto saw this and acted quickly.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, I got an idea. Why don't you try surfing? I know you'll like it. Use my board. It is well balanced unless there are ten idiots on it at one time. Hahaha." Sakura looked at Naruto, a bit unsure if she should try it or not. She had to admit, it did look like fun. Ino and Tenten seemed to enjoy it too. She made up her mind, smiled, and nodded at Naruto.

"OK, Naruto. I'll try it. You better be right about how much fun it is." She raised a fist at him in a mock gesture of punishment. She got up and walked to the edge of the surf and grabbed Naruto's board. She waded out into the water before she lied on of the board and paddled out towards the sea.

Naruto watched Sakura until she had begun to paddle out. He picked up the bowl from the spot he had set it down on the towel and walked to the ramen shack. '_**That's odd. I didn't notice this place when I came past here before and I never miss a ramen shop.**__'_ Naruto took a seat at the far left stool and laid the bowl on the counter. The first man who was wiping the counter had returned to his job by now, though he had kept a wary eye on the person who took the ramen. He paused in his endeavor once more to take the bowl and put it in a tiny pile of dishes off to the right.

Naruto examined the two people in the booth. The one wiping the counter was of average height, had dirty blonde hair that would have fallen to about midway down his back except for the fact that he kept it in tied in a ponytail in back, had blue-hazel eyes, and wore a dark blue shirt and black pants, each article being a loose fit on his slender frame. The one watching over the pot of water wore identical clothing but had on a small red bandana around his right arm halfway between his elbow and shoulder. His build was larger than the first, his clothes being a full size larger than the first mans. He had brown slightly curly hair that if straightened would be shoulder length and stood a full head shorter than the first guy. His dark blue eyes were framed behind a pair of neon blue tinted glasses. His eyes stayed glued to the pot, watching the temperature carefully, making sure to preserve the entire flavor possible in his meals.

"So, is everything okay? We were a bit surprised when that girl came over here screaming about a "Ramen Emergency."" The one who had been wiping the counter took a seat on a stool that was hidden from view.

"Eh? Oh, yeah. Everything's fine. My surfboard kinda knocked me out. I guess Sakura ran over here and got some ramen to wake me up." Naruto grinned as his hand scratched behind his head. The salesman behind the counter laughed while the chef chuckled quietly.

"That's good that nobody was hurt. I'm Remington and the one back there is Randall, my brother. It nice to meet you." Remington extended his hand which Naruto grasped.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the next hokage of Konoha." Remington looked at Naruto, uncertainty on his face, while Randall sat in the back, a look of amusement on his face.

"Yeah, well, Mr. Hokage, you owe 150 ryo for that bowl of ramen." Remington extended his hand out, palm open towards Naruto. Naruto pulled out his wallet and handed over 150 ryo which Remington quickly pocketed. "Is there anything else we can help you with?" Remington gave a small smile, his tone light and friendly.

"Yeah, I could use 2 bowls of barbeque pork ramen, 3 bowls of beef ramen, and 2 bowls of miso pork ramen." Remington seemed stunned, while Randall stopped in his stirring to look up and stare at the youthful ninja.

"Do you plan on eating it all? By yourself?" Remington and Randall continued to stare dumbfoundedly at the boy. Naruto simply smiled and nodded his head. He broke out laughing at the looks on their faces, unable to contain it. The two brothers slowly broke their stunned feelings and prepared to cook his order. Remington set out seven bowls while Randall got three pots cooking, each containing the flavor requested. Within minutes all seven bowls had been filled and were ready for consumption.

"Itadatakimasu!" shouted Naruto before burying his face in his meal and he showed no mercy to the defenseless noodles. Remington and Randall stared on, in horrified fascination, at the speed with which Naruto put the ramen meals away. Though they had run this business for some time, they had never seen someone devour ramen with such speed.

"Yum, that was great. It was almost as good as Ichiraku's." Remington and Randall both run over to Naruto, their faces inches from Naruto's.

"Ichiraku's? You mean THE Teuchi Ichiraku's?" asked Randall, his voice full of awe. Naruto nodded back and before he knew it the two brothers began jumping up and down with joy, singing some strange song of celebration. Finally they calmed down and returned to their normal expressions.

"Hehe, sorry, its just that Ichiraku was an old friend of our father's. Since you know him, half price on the ramen." Naruto shouted with joy and quickly ordered seven more bowls of ramen which the brothers were happy to prepare.

"Pardon me, I don't mean to interrupt your meal, but do you know that girl?" Randall had left his small kitchen to sit on the stool next to Naruto and was looking out on the beach. Randall indicated the person he was talking about and Naruto turned around to see who he was talking about. Naruto spotted Hinata as foam splashed up at her while she attempted to surf. Slowly Hinata balanced out and stabilized.

Naruto tried to shout out a warning, but before he could yell out the wave crashed into Hinata and threw her off her board. Naruto and Randall hurried to the shore to make sure the girl was alright. Hinata rolled onto the beach and gasped in air. Naruto rushed to his comrade and Randall grabbed the surfboard she had been using. Naruto lifted her head up as he called out her name.

Hinata's eyes slowly opened, and she smiled when she saw the man of her dreams in front of her. Reality began to sink in and she quickly sat up, a blush covering her body. Randall walked forward and extended his hand out to the young girl on the beach, which she accepted. He pulled her up and handed the board back to her, a small smile on his face.

"I'm glad you are unhurt miss. Do be more careful from now on, please. It would be most sad if one had to attend a funeral whilst on vacation." Randall turned around and walked back to the shop which left a confused Hinata and Naruto behind him.

"Ne, Hinata, what happened?" Naruto questioned Hinata as she turned back to look at him. Hinata tried to meet his gaze, but the heat in her face made her look away from Naruto so she would not suddenly burst into flame.

"I-I am not s-sure. I t-tried to b-balance myself b-but then a w-wave came and knocked me d-down." Hinata closed her eyes as small tears began to pool in them. **'**_**Naruto-kun saw me wipe out. I am such a failure. Hanabi is a better fighter than me. Soon she will become the next heir of the family, removing me from the equation completely. Then Naruto will recognize how useless and weak I am and never talk to me again**__.' _The small tears had grown bigger, and began to slip from her eyes to fall down her delicate cheek.

Naruto could hear small sobs escape from Hinata as she held the board tightly to her. He reached a hand out and gently touched her shoulder, making her jump a bit. "Hey Hinata, it is okay. Not everyone is able to surf right off the bat. In fact, most people can't. It's people like me and Neji that are the freaks because we can. Tell you what, how about I help you learn? I can give some pointers and maybe ride with you, and help you get it. Does that sound good?"

"R-really, Naruto-kun?" Hinata's sobs had slowed to a halt. All she could feel now was the warmth that radiated off of Naruto's hand on her shoulder. Naruto turned her around and brought his hand up to her face. He gently wiped away the tears from her cheeks.

"Of course, Hinata. I always keep my word. That is my way of the ninja after all." Hinata nodded, light once again returning to her pale eyes as Naruto took her hand in his and lead her to the water.

About an hour later the ninja gang had returned from their surfing excursion. Everyone was surprised by how quickly Hinata managed to catch on after her first unfortunate attempt. Naruto turned out to be a great teacher, although she felt like she would pass out every time Naruto held onto her to guide her. They returned their boards back to the shop before they headed to the ramen shack for a quick late lunch. Surprisingly even Shino was their, to enjoy the tasty meal.

"Hey guys. I got an idea. How about we play a few games of volleyball?" Kiba threw out the suggestion, eager to show off his skills to impress the girls.

"Yes. A great idea to show our youthful fire that burns strongly in all our hearts!" shouted Lee. The others quickly agreed and headed out to the sands to set up the game.

"Hey, Remington, Randall, would you guys care to join us?" Naruto invited the two ramen vendors to participate. Remington shouted out his confirmation while Randall simply nodded and both put a temporarily closed sign up on the stand before they joined the other young ninja.

Kiba, Hinata, Chouji, Shikamaru, Shino, and Ino were on one side while Naruto, Sakura, Neji, Lee, Tenten, and Remington were on the other. Randall sat on the sidelines and acted as the unofficial referee. The game lasted hours and ended only because it became so dark that it was getting difficult to see the ball. The final score was 8-7 for Kiba's team. Everyone congratulated each other on a hard game. While everyone was talked after the game Randall had snuck off and gathered a large stack of wood onto the beach. Everyone's head turned as a blazing fire erupted from the pile of wood, a smile framed on Randall's face, as light glinted off his glasses.

The others gathered around the fire and enjoyed its gentle warmth as they watched the sparks flicker into the night. Everyone separated into small groups, except for Remington and Randall who returned to their ramen stand. Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru laughed at one of Chouji's jokes; Tenten, Lee, and Neji talked quietly amongst themselves except when Lee would shout about the "flames of youth!"; Kiba, Hinata, Sakura and Naruto sat close by, Naruto and Kiba attempted to out do one another with exaggerated tales of their past bouts while Sakura and Hinata quietly gossiped, most of the conversation occurred from Sakura's side. Shino sat off by himself and studied all his friends.

"Yo, who here wants some nice cold drinks, huh?" Remington and Randall had returned from the hut and bore trays of drinks with little umbrellas sticking out of them. Everyone eagerly drank for the tall glass and enjoyed the fruity flavor that fell upon their taste buds. The ninja enjoyed their time together, laughed at jokes, told stories, or in Naruto's and Kiba's case, competed in stupid competitions. As the party began to wind down, the young ninja huddled around the fire. Randall had initiated a ghost story contest and his story left chills down the teenagers spines. Many had tried to tell a better story and get more of a reaction than he had but none had done quiet as well.

Randall was sure of his superior story skills until Shino surprised everyone. He stood before the fire and told a long and fear filled story, complete with techniques. For his big finish Shino said "Though no corpse has ever been found, you can still feel the small pinpricks of his fingers nails on your skin, on nights with a full moon." As though he had planned it, the clouds parted and revealed a full moon which cast its light onto the beach. Everyone shrieked as they felt tiny touches all along their necks and back. Shino raised his arms above his head, laughed the entire time, and dispersed into a swarm of bugs that flew back towards the hotel, his creepy laugh filled the night and ninjas with terror.

Slowly everyone calmed down, realized their terror came not from the story, but from the fact that Shino had laughed. Some began to get up and leave the beach. Some returned to the hotel like Shikamaru, Shino, Neji, Chouji, Ino, and Kiba, while Remington and Randall returned to their ramen stand and began to lock it up for the night. Lee and Tenten had walked off down the beach until the fires light no longer was cast on them which removed them from sight of the last three on the beach, Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata.

Naruto and Sakura continues to talk about past experiences and tried to get Hinata more involved in the conversation. However, she stayed quiet, occasionally she stole a glance at Naruto, but mostly she sat and listened to the two teammates talk. Sakura stood up to leave, grabbed her towel and basket before she said goodnight to Naruto and Hinata.

"N-Naruto-kun, ano, I was w-wondering…that is, n-nevermind." Said Hinata, as her shyness forced to drop her request.

"What is it Hinata. You can ask me, no problem," replied Naruto since he wanted to see this weird girl finally open up a bit.

"Ano, well, th-that is, I was wondering if t-tommorow you w-would like to g-go somewhere." Asked Hinata, he face a slight red, all her nerve used up so she would not pas out.

"Sure, that sounds fine. Where do you want to go?"

"R-really? Ano, I d-do not know. I did not think th-that far."

"I know, how about we go see my friends here? I forgot to go see them in all the excitement today. Hehe, guess we all got a little distracted today, huh?"

"Th-that sounds g-great Naruto-kun." Hinata smiled, her confidence lifted a bit by his acceptance.

"And Sakura-chan can come along too. I am sure she would love to visit them too." Hinata looked away from Naruto, a little sad that she would not be alone with him now. "Well, it's getting late Hinata. We should probably head in and get some rest for tomorrow"

Naruto stood up, wiped the sand off his shorts and offered his hand out to Hinata. She grasped it, enjoyed the feel of his rough hand on hers, the strength in that hand. Naruto pulled her up and walked her back to the hotel. He escorted her to her room before he returned to his own. Naruto quickly took a shower to wash the sand and grit from his body before he got ready for bed.

Naruto changed out of his suit and into his pajamas before he climbed into bed. Kiba had left the room's window open, which allowed the room to air out while he and Akamaru slept peacefully on the couch. Naruto felt a chill come from the window as a breeze blew in. He walked over to the window to close it but instead found his gaze drawn to a large billboard outside, that was lit by a row of torches. He let out a shout of joy as he read the billboard.

**The First Annual Wave Country Martial Arts Tournament**

At Naruto's shout Kiba and Akamaru woke up, each none too happy to have their sleep disturbed. Before they could let out their frustrations on the blonde boy, Naruto had opened his door and ran out, formed a quick set of hands symbols and made several copies of himself. Naruto and his clones went up and down the hall, burst through the doors of all the other ninja. As he ran through the rooms he shouted "MARTIAL ARTS TOURNAMENT" over and over. The female ninja were not happy with their sleep interrupted and having been seen in their sleep wear. All they saw was a yellow blur fly through their rooms before they chased it out. The commotion of the shinobi filled the night with angry shouts of "TEME," "DOBE," and "BAKA."

It took the combined effort of all the ninja to bring Naruto and his clones down. They brought the real Naruto back to his room, tied tightly to a pole and a gag on his mouth. They threw the blonde into his room and waited till he had calmed down before they removed the gag to hear what he had to say.

"Guys, you gotta listen. It's a martial arts tournament and we get to make a request of the ruling council of Wave Country. We gotta enter."

A few of the ninja seemed intrigued by the thought while others felt it would be a waste of time. They untied Naruto and began to debate about who would enter and who wouldn't. Kiba and Naruto tried their best to get everyone to enter, but some people were steadfastly against it. After a long debate where in many fighting words were exchanged, a final report came out. Naruto, Lee, Tenten, Kiba and Akamaru, Chouji, and Shino would participate while Shikamaru, Ino, Sakura, Hinata, and Neji would simply watch. The ninja nodded their heads, and headed back their respective rooms. Even though they were annoyed with the blonde for the commotion he cause, they seemed excited about the next day.

Naruto closed the window and slipped into bed. He quickly fell asleep to thoughts of the upcoming tournament. He dreamt of defeating all his opponents with ease as Sakura cheered him on and Hinata also. Naruto had his fox grin plastered to his face all night as he slept and dreamt of his soon to be glory.

_Anyway, hope you enjoy the re edited chapter 1 and chapter 2 will be up shortly. Please read and Review. Thanks. _

_**Signing Up, Preparing for Battle**_


	3. Chap 2: Signing Up, Preparing for Battle

**Chapter 2: Signing Up, Preparing for Battle**

Naruto threw his arms in front of his face which narrowly blocked Kiba's fist that was aimed for the blonde's head. Naruto quickly leapt backwards and narrowly avoided a vicious bite from Akamaru to his ribs. Naruto landed near the wall of the arena, his breathe came in deep gulps. Kiba and Akamaru stood in the center of the arena and stared down at Naruto. '**Damn, how am I going to beat them? I can't lose to them, I can't.'**

"Give it up Naruto, you can't beat me this time," shouted Kiba, Akamaru growled and barked his agreement with his master. "Let's show him what we can do Akamaru!" Akamaru barked once in acknowledgement before he burst into a run at Naruto. Kiba began to follow his partner's lead as he followed several feet behind. Kiba and Akamaru split up, Kiba came in from the left and Akamaru came from the right. Naruto drew several kunai from his pouch and launched the small daggers at Kiba before he turned his attention to the small dog. Kiba slammed against the wall hard, although while he dodged the kunai he sacrificed his speed to do so.

Akamaru leapt at Naruto's torso but was forced to change his target as Naruto attempted to block the dog's attack with an open palm strike to his torso. Akamaru threw his body into a backwards roll which caused his body to fly just under the blonde's hand, before the dog latched onto the exposed limb. Akamaru clenched his teeth deep and refused to let go of the appendage. Naruto shook his hand vigorously in a vain attempt to detach the animal from his hand.

Naruto quickly looked back up, Kiba forgotten thanks to Akamaru's distraction. Naruto looked back towards Kiba just in time to receive a face full of fist and gut full of fingers. Akamaru released his grip from Naruto's hand just as Kiba's punches landed. The force of Kiba's impact to the youth sent Naruto's body backwards where it smashed against the wall which caused part of the cement to cave in and dust to fly into the air.

"Gotcha Naruto. We did it Akamaru. Way to go boy." Akamaru leapt into Kiba's arms, his barks filled with joy. As the dust settled Kiba and Akamaru looked back to the boy's body and were shocked when it disappeared in a puff of smoke and was replaced with a log. "WHAT!?" shouted Kiba.

From behind the dog partners a loud voice shouted "Shadow Clone Technique!" Kiba and Akamaru quickly turned around to find seven Narutos now in the arena. Three of the Narutos stood close together, one with his hand held out towards the other two. The other four Narutos leapt into action, charging at the stunned Kiba and Akamaru. Kiba and Akamaru quickly split up and began to dodge the blonde ninjas' attack.

"Damn, Akamaru, we need to finish this. Let's do it." Kiba quickly performed the Beast Mimicry Technique: Four Legs which caused his body to enter its heightened state of power. Kiba landed on the ground, on all fours, and looked back up. His eyes tracked the Narutos in the air and he launched himself into a high jump. Kiba tackled one of the Narutos that were after Akamaru. Kiba grabbed the blonde by his jacket and tossed the boy at the wall and enjoyed the sight as the boy exploded into a puff of smoke on impact.

Kiba was rushed quickly to the ground by a glancing blow from one of the other Narutos that were rampaging around. As Kiba impacted with the ground he saw Akamaru send another clone into oblivion with a hard kick to the ribs. Down to two clones now, Kiba picked himself off the ground and performed the Beast Human Clone Technique, and transformed Akamaru into a replica of himself.

One of the two Naruto clones left landed on the arena wall and stayed connected to it by the chakra in his feet. He reached into his pouch and withdrew four kunai and placed two in each hand. He quickly launched the kunai, two at Kiba and two at Akamaru. Kiba rolled to his right, not able to dodge quickly enough. He felt the kunai pierce through his jacket and leave a shallow cut along his ribs. Akamaru leapt above the attack, landed next to his master, and checked his wounds.

"Don't worry, Akamaru. I'm fine, it's just a small wound." Kiba reached into his pockets and revealed two food pills. He quickly slipped one to Akamaru and swallowed the other him self. The pain from Kiba's wound disappeared and a smile spread across his face. "Now this ends!" The two Naruto clones stood next to each before they split up as they hoped to trap the two Inuzuka's.

The two dog partners gauged their targets and ran towards the two blondes.

Kiba forced his body into a spin as he began the Piercing Fang just a second before Akamaru began his. The Narutos attempted to dodge out of the way but found they could not move fast enough to get away and disappeared from existence after being hit by the high speed attack.

Kiba and Akamaru landed side by side and looked at the last three Narutos. One had his hand held out as the other two moved their hands above and to the sides of it, doing something the two had never seen before. The two nin began to see a small blue orb appear in Naruto's hand, and it began to spin faster and faster, and the other two Naruto's moved their hands faster and faster about the blue orb. Not wanting Naruto to finish what he was doing, the two launched into a Double Piercing Fang attack which sent their bodies rotating at the highest speeds they could manage on a straight course for the Narutos.

Just before Kiba and Akamaru arrived at their target the Rasengan became complete. The blue ball spun at speeds even beyond the Piercing Fang attack. The two Naruto clones disappeared in a cloud of smoke and Naruto brought his hand with the Rasegan to his front. He willed the orb to spin faster and faster, the orb caused his skin to begin to burn from the friction. Just as Kiba and Akamaru arrived at their target Naruto slammed the spinning sphere into the two targets, the rotations complete opposites from each other. The Double Piercing Fang attack spun faster and faster in an attempt to out spin the Rasengan. Naruto was pushed back and his feet attempted to dig deeper into the ground for a better grip.

The Rasengan's rotation began to slow, the power Kiba's and Akamaru's attack began to overpower it. Naruto pushed his hand farther forward, concentrated all his will into the Rasengan, and put every last bit of chakra he had into forcing its spin to become faster. Naruto's hand burned fiercely, the friction started to hear up his skin. Slowly, the Rasengan picked up speed once again, counter spinning to the Inuzuka's technique. The Double Piercing Fang had reached its limit and was overpowered by the Rasengan. Kiba and Akamaru's rotation slowed and then stopped, the two Inuzuka's held in mid air for split second of time. Then they began to spin the opposite direction of their Fang attack. The force of the Rasengan finally released its full fury and a blinding explosion filled the arena. Kiba and Akamaru were hurled across the arena and slammed painfully into the wall and became embedded in the structure. Akamaru reverted back to his true form and the two fell to the ground, unconscious.

"And the winner is…Uzumaki Naruto!!!" The announcer's voice filled the arena, shortly followed by crazy cheers from the audience. Naruto strode to the center of the arena, a smile proudly displayed on his face. The ground beneath his feet began to rumble and a stage arose forth from the dirt arena. Naruto stood in the center and jumped up and down, his thumb up to all the audience. Cannons were heard in the background firing what Naruto thought was confetti until one piece landed on him. Naruto realized that they were firing ramen out of the cannon instead. Naruto looked behind him and saw Randall and Remington behind the guns as they reloaded and fired as fast as possible.

Naruto looked back to the front of the stage and was shocked when a pink haired blur leapt at him and engulfed him in a hug. "Sakura-chan?" Naruto kept his arms out wide, afraid to embrace the kunoichi.

"You did it Naruto, way to go!" shouted Sakura and she embraced the youth tighter. Naruto let his arms embrace Sakura gently, closed his eyes and enjoyed the comfort and warmth in her touch. When Naruto opened his eyes he saw Hinata from afar, her eyes wide and sad.

"Hinata, what's wrong? Come on up. I did it. I won." Naruto called to her. Hinata cast her gaze to the ground, shook her head, turned and began to walk away. "Hinata, wait! Hold on!"

"Just ignore her Naruto, she's just being weird." Sakura grabbed a tighter hold of Naruto's arm and her grip began to hurt the ninja.

"Sakura, ouch, could you let got for a sec. I need to talk to Hinata." Naruto turned back and yanked his out of the girls grip before he leapt from the stage and ran after Hinata. Suddenly the floor beneath Naruto's feet disappeared along with the arena. He found himself falling in nothingness, no light or sound could be found. Naruto collided with a firm object as his arm smashed roughly into it. Naruto pushed himself up and only to find he was standing on nothing. Before Naruto's face a large iron gate appeared with two large red orbs that stared back at him.

Kyuubi, what do you want?" Naruto asked the eyes. A deep rumbling chuckle echoed back and a large tongue shot forth from behind the bars and licked Narutos face, over and over as Naruto attempted to keep the lashings at bay. "Stop it, st-stop it. That tickles, hahaha…."

Naruto's eyes opened wide and found himself in the hotel bed. Akamaru stood upon his chest and licked his face. "Get off me Akamaru. Eh, dog slobber." Naruto grabbed the edge of the blanket and wiped his face off, but still felt dirty. Akamaru barked once at the blonde ninja before he headed into the other room where Kiba waited to take the dog for his morning walk.

Naruto groaned as he threw the covers back and slid his feet to the side before he got out of the bed. Naruto walked hunched over to towards the bathroom, his eyes still mostly closed. Naruto walked into the bathroom but he failed to notice the bar of soap left on the floor and stepped on it. Naruto's body flied forward and his face roughly slammed into the sink. Naruto stepped back from the sink, slipped on the same piece of soap, and went flying into the air. Naruto landed roughly in the bathtub where his arm turned the cold water on as he fell.

Naruto yelped in surprise from the cold water and leapt out of the tub to land on the soap once more. Naruto was sent flying out of the bathroom and back into the hotel bedroom. Kiba looked down at Naruto and laughed. "You were right Akamaru, it was worth waiting to go on our morning walk. Hahaha" Kiba and Akamaru walked to the room's window and leapt out onto a nearby tree and went down to the beach. Naruto groaned and just lied still for several minutes before he decided life would stop picking on him for now.

Naruto carefully made his way back into the bathroom, took hold of the demon bar of soap, and lobbed it out the window. Unknown to Naruto the bar of soap struck the tree outside, bounced off the bark, and struck an old man on his morning jog and knocked him unconscious. Naruto quickly showered and used the bathroom before leaving the room, and locked the door behind him. Naruto's stomach growled and he knew that he needed to eat and quickly. Naruto headed down the stairs and walked to the beach. He made his way over to the Ramen stand and found the two brothers taking down the closed sign.

"Hey Naruto, good morning," said Remington with a smile on his face.

"Good morning Naruto. I hope the day is treating you well." Randall called to his new friend. Naruto waved his greetings, happy that the two were open this early in the morning.

"Good morning Remington and Randall. Unfortunately the morning hasn't been that kind to me, but some fresh hot ramen will be a good way to make up for it." Naruto said to the two brothers.

"No problem. One fresh order of miso pork ramen coming up," Remington replied. He grabbed a bowl from the counter and moved over to his brother. A fire was started and the water set to boil. The flame burned intensely and within minutes the water was at a hard boil. Randall seasoned and spiced the mixture before he added the noodles to the pot and let the spices combine with the noodles.

"Faster, faster, faster. Oh, please, it smells soooooo good," complained Naruto, as impatient as ever. Randall looked at the bowl his brother had gotten him and frowned. He picked the bowl up and tossed it at the back of his brother's head. Remington snatched the bowl out of the air and turned back to glare at his older sibling.

"Bigger," was all Randall said as he went back to stir the ramen.

"I'll show you bigger….," mumble Remington as he took out a large bowl from underneath the counter. He tossed it to Randall, who caught it without turning around and placed it on the counter next to him. He quickly emptied the contents of the pot into the bowl and brought it before Naruto. Naruto's eyes lit up at the sight of the large bowl. The smell wafted from the bowl and filled his nose and made his salivary glands overload. Naruto quickly grabbed a pair of chopsticks, separated them, and with a shout of "Itadatakimasu" began to devour the bowl of Ramen.

"That should hold him for a few minutes, don't you think?" asked Randall to his brother, a small smile on his face. Remington nodded his agreement and began to wipe down the counter once more. Both the ninja were shocked when a loud belch was echoed forth from behind them. They quickly tuned around to find the bowl empty and a look of contentment on Naruto's face.

"That was great Randall." Naruto grabbed the bowl and held it in front of him, pointing towards Randall. "Can I get seconds?" Randall and Remington stared at the blonde and slowly went about his request.

Randall headed to the back of the shack and returned quickly. He whispered into his brother's ear, "Hey, Rem, ummm, we're out of noodles again."

"Nani? Already? Well, I guess we have no choice. Do it." Randall nodded and headed to the back of the shack. He opened a hidden partition and walked inside and closed the opening behind him. Naruto cocked his head to the side, a look of confusion on his face. From the hidden wall panel Naruto could hear Randall's muffled voice, but he caught the first word in the series, Kuchiyose. After Randall finished his sentence a small puff of mist escaped from a crack in the wall. Naruto heared something odd echo from inside the wall, but he had trouble identifying just what it was. It sound like something roared softly, but it sounded far too…..cute. That was the only way to describe it, a cute roar. After several minutes Randall exited the not so hidden room, a basket full of noodles in his arms. He quickly shut the wall behind himself and placed a sealing technique upon the door.

"Ne, Randall, what the heck was that in there?"

"What was what?" asked Randall, confusion on his face.

"I heard something, and I know I heard the word kuchiyose."

"You're just imagining things. I mean come on, what could I possibly summon back there that would be any use in getting extra noodles?" Randall looked slightly nervous and he hoped that Naruto would soon stop asking questions.

"Yeah, I guess you are right." Naruto said. He was still curious about what could have been behind the door, but decided to let the subject drop because it seemed to make Randall act nervous. "Ne, did you guys hear about the tournament that is going to happen tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we've known about it for weeks. It's why we came here," said Remington. "I'm always looking for a good fight, so I figured it would be worthwhile to come here."

"You're competing? That's awesome. How about you Randall? Will you be in the competition too?"

"Nah, I'm just going to be selling ramen in the stands. I'm not a fighter, I'm a cook."

"Yeah, until you get mad at me" grumbled Remington.

"Hey, you always start it. Not my fault you don't finish it." Randall filled the pot with water and set it up for a second helping of ramen as requested by Naruto. Randall took some of the noodles from the basket and placed them in the pot so they could cook.

"That does it!" Remington charged at his brother and tackled him through the side wall where they landed on the ground outside. Randall quickly rolled on top of his brother and grabbed hold of Remington's hands. Remington slid a leg up and between him and Randall and pushed each other apart. Randall stood with his arms at his sides with no sign of defense. Remington stood a few feet away, slightly crouched ready to spring at a moments notice.

"Umm, guys, the pots acting weird" said Naruto, his voice tinged a hint of worry about his ramen meal.

Randall's eyes widen and he turns back to the stand and turned the fire off and quickly stirred the ramen to make sure that it was not ruined. Remington relaxed his stance and returned to the Ramen bar. "He knows I can kick his butt, he's just lucky I never want to" muttered Remington.

Randall takes the bowl from in front of Naruto and fills it with the latest batch of ramen before returning it to the youth. With another excited cry Naruto went to work on the new batch. Randall and Remington watched in fascination at how the blonde devoured the ramen so quickly. After he finished the bowl, Naruto licked his lips and set the bowl down. "That was great guys. How much do I owe you?"

"Uh, Remington, you're the price guy. I just cook."

"How about 1500 ryo and we call it even?" said Remington.

"Awesome, I can't wait till lunch." Naruto handed over the money, glad that the meal was so cheap. Naruto got up from his seat and looked out on the beach. He saw Ino out on the beach with a few boys excitedly talking to her, but he could find no sign of the other ninja. He shrugged his shoulders and walked down the beach looking for a nice quiet spot to train in. Naruto walked for nearly twenty minutes until he found a densely wooded area back from the beach. Naruto ran to the trees and checked the area to make sure nobody was around before he began to practice. Naruto created four clones and gave them simple instructions before he sent them off to their task. Naruto watched as the four clones leapt into the trees and went farther into the woods. Naruto drew a kunai from his pouch and waited.

Naruto ducked and dodged a kunai that had been aimed for his head, and brought his kunai quickly to his right. He flicked his wrist and deflected a kunai that was on a path for his ribs. Naruto leapt from the ground and narrowly dodged a pair of kunai that stuck deep in the ground. While in the air, Naruto twisted his body to the left and left fly two kunai. The first kunai deflected another from the clones and the second headed to the source of the clone's kunai and sent the clone back into non-existence. Naruto landed on a tree branch, quickly leapt to another branch and another in a quick series as he hunted down his other clones. Naruto smiled slyly as he caught sight of an orange blur leap across his path.

Naruto quickly followed it and made sure to watch for any sign of his prey. From Naruto's right a cry echoed and he turned in time to receive a strong kick to his shoulder from one of his clones. After the clone kicked Naruto's shoulder the clone cried out "U"- and was followed by a second kick to Naruto's chest that sent him the boy backwards with a shout of "Zu." Naruto tried to recover from the impact but he was hit from another clone in the middle of this back and propelled Naruto into the air as the clone yelled "Maki" at the airborne blonde.

'**Crap, I know what's next!' **thought Naruto. From above him came his final clone who shouted "Naruto Rendan," with the clones leg extended, ready to slam into Naruto. Naruto brought his hands up in front of his body and blocked the main impact from breaking a rib, but the force of the kick sent the boy back towards the ground. Naruto's body landed hard against the ground and knocked the wind out of him. The three clones landed on the ground near Naruto and moved in, grabbed the blonde and prepared to claim victory. Naruto's body disappeared in a puff of smoke, a log in his place. The clones frantically looked around as cries of "Nani" filled the air.

Naruto sat on a tree branch, his shoulder and chest still aching from the attack. He drew in his breaths quietly, but raggedly. **'Guess I should rethink telling my bunshins to go all out next time.'** Naruto steeled his nerves and gritted through the pain as he stood up. He quickly checked his surroundings and saw that his bunshins had left the area. Naruto leapt from his branch and began to search for his clones Naruto found the three clones in a small clearing and heard them speak in hushed voices. Naruto couldn't pick up any of the words but he guessed they were planning a trap. Naruto pulled out one his few remaining kunai and attached an explosive tag to it before he let it fly between the three bunshins.

Two of the clones leapt into the trees in time to escape the blast of the tag but the third was turned into a cloud of smoke. The last two clones split up, one raced straight for Naruto while the second moved to flank the boy. Naruto tried to keep the two in his forward field of vision but soon lost track of one as the clone that was headed straight for him let fly with a kunai. Naruto dodged the projectile and dropped from the branch to land on the ground. The bunshin leapt from the tree branch, his feet together, as he aimed for Naruto. Naruto grabbed the feet of the bunshin and used the bunshin's momentum to send the clone into a spin before he let it fly straight into a tree where it disappeared. Naruto heard his final clone approach from behind him and quickly turned around. The bunshin let fly with several kunai, a smirk on his face, as he saw Naruto's eyes grow wide. Suddenly the clone saw the daggers headed straight at him and had only a moment to realize Naruto used a replacement technique to switch places with him. The kunai impacted on the final clone and sent it back from whence it came.

Naruto let out a shout of victory after the final clone poofed away a bright smile on his face. Naruto took a deep breath and enjoyed the mild pain that filled came with it. His body was nearly finished with repairing his minor wounds. **'Now for some Rasengan training.'**

Naruto summoned two clones into existence and presented his hand to one of them. The clone began to mold the chakra, his hands moved all around the air above Naruto's hand. Slowly a blue spinning orb of chakra formed in the boy's hand. The orb spun faster and faster as the clone worked the chakra around. His job complete, the clone disappeared and Naruto brought the orb in front of his face. He stared at the swirling vortex and studied the movement of the sphere. **'The Fourth's technique. I wonder what it would have been like if he had had the time to finish it. Guess the world will never know.' **Naruto shrugged his shoulders and readied himself.

Naruto ran as quickly as he could at his clone and tried to impale the clone with the orb. The clone dodged the attack and landed off to Naruto's left next to a tree. Naruto spun on his heel quickly and tracked his target. He cocked his arm back and let fly with the sphere, mesmerized as it flew through the air and impacted into, and through, the clone and into the tree. The Rasengan began to mulch its way through the base of the tree and Naruto stared in fascinated horror. The tree tilted as more than half of its base was turned into pulp and started its slow and inevitable fall. The Rasengan finally punched through the tree and disappeared, its energy expelled. The tree hit the forest floor with a loud thump and scared the birds and animals for hundreds of yards.

Naruto stared at his hands in awe. **'I just threw the Rasengan. Can I do that again?'** Naruto summoned up another clone and had him form another Rasengan in his hand. Naruto once more cocked his arm back and threw his arm forward. He watched straight ahead to track the flight of the orb and stared confusedly as he saw nothing change. He looked back down at his hand and was surprised to see the Rasengan still spinning in his hand. "Nani? Why didn't you fly?" shouted Naruto at the orb.

Naruto sat down and stared at the blue swirling sphere of chakra in his hand. Naruto couldn't think of anything he had done different this time than when he had thrown it at the clone. Naruto stood back up and proceeded to make another attempt. Naruto pulled his arm all the way back and sent his arm forward as hard as he could as he mentally yelled for the sphere to go. The sphere released its hold of the boy hand and flew straight between a pair of trees and dissipated five meters away.

"Yes, I did it!" Naruto jumped into the air and pumped his fist enthusiastically. "I wonder how fast I can do that." Naruto created several clones and had them form a line behind him. He brought his arm out and the first clone stepped up. He formed the Rasengan as quickly as he could before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Naruto tossed the orb in the same direction as the last time so that it would not strike anything. The next clone came up and formed another Rasengan which Naruto threw again with success. This continued for several minutes until Naruto was finally tired. He put a halt to the training and sat under a tree, the shade a comfort to him.

**'I can make about 3 Rasengan a minute. Not that fast so I can't toss them like I could kunai. I wonder if there is a way I could form them faster?' **Naruto pondered this thought for several minutes before an idea stuck him. He quickly looked down at his hands and smiled. "I have two of these!"

Naruto leapt up from his sitting position very excited, his exhaustion gone now. Naruto summoned up six clones and assumed his stance, this time both his arms out and a clone working a sphere up in each hand. Naruto launched one sphere then the other and waited for the next set to be formed. Naruto was lost in happiness at having found a new way to use the rasengan and the fact that he could now form one in each hand. Luckily the Rasengan doesn't require a lot of chakra, merely a great amount of chakra control that Naruto earned through his ninja life.

Unbeknownst to Naruto, someone was watching him from behind a bush a few meters away. The kunoichi watched Naruto work hard and was proud of his progress and hard work. Her pale eyes watched every movement of the youth, memorized every movement, every smile, and every single determined movement, as she has done for many years of her life. Hinata sighed as she saw her crush work hard at his training and wished she was as passionate as he was. She wished for his bravery, his determination, and mostly she wished for his recognition.

So focused was the girl on her beloved that she was unaware of another presence sneaking up behind her. The person's face moved down next to Hinata's ear and whispered, "Watching Naruto again, huh?"

Hinata let out a loud "EEP" and turned around to find Sakura behind her, the kunoichi in her swimsuit. Naruto heard the sound and twisted his body whilst in mid throw. He released the orb and sent it into the ground at his feet. His eyes went wide with shock before the explosion propelled the boy into the air. Naruto let out a yell as he flew through the air headed towards the beach.

"Oh Kami, what have I done?" Hinata took off after the blonde, his progress tracked by Hinata's sharp eyes. The boy landed in the water and the impact caused a large wave to come crashing to the shore. As Hinata and Sakura reached the beach Naruto rolled in on a secondary wave face down in the water. Naruto slowly pushed himself off the sand, his body shook and joints popped. Sakura walked over to her teammate, a little sheepish at having caused the catastrophe inadvertently.

"Sorry about that Naruto. I didn't know Hinata would do that." Sakura smiled as she helped her teammate up the beach to a small shaded area. Hinata walked with them, her eyes downcast.

"M-Me too Naruto-kun. I am sorry. I did not mean to i-interrupt your training and c-cause you to explode." Hinata spoke softly as her fingers pressed against each other roughly.

"Don't worry about it you two. I'm fine really." To prove his point, Naruto went into a hand stand and flipped back to his feet. He cringed as his joints popped again, but refused to fall. "S-See, I'm great. Hehehe."

Hinata moved a hand towards her crush's back but pulled away at the last instant, fear getting the best of her. Mentally she scolded herself for being so weak that she could not bring herself to comfort her favorite blonde. "So what brings you two out here anyway?" Naruto questioned of the girls.

"Well, I came looking for you because I wanted to know if you wanted to go see Tazuna and Inari. I asked Remington and Randall if they had seen you and they said you went this direction. They also told me I was the second person to ask if they had seen you." Sakura's gaze drifted over towards Hinata and watched as her face slowly became red before she turned her head down. "So I saw Hinata walking a ways ahead of me and followed her and found her there in the woods. I came to talk to her and well, you know what happened from there."

Naruto nodded his head, a look of understanding on his face. "I see, I see" he muttered with his hand rubbing his chin. "Ne, Hinata, why were you watching me anyway?"

Hinata's breath caught in her throat at the question and she had trouble swallowing. **'What should I say? Should I tell him the truth? Oh, Kami, help me…'**

"A-ano, I w-wanted to see when w-we were going to see your f-friends and I saw you p-practicing so hard….I did not want to disturb you." Hinata looked up and found the blonde's face inches from hers. She counted herself lucky to merely blush fiercely and not faint.

"Oh, so you were planning on taking Hinata and going to see them all by yourself? Just the two of you? How cute." Sakura smiled as she took in the two and saw Hinata's deep blush.

"No, no, it's nothing like that. I had promised to let her meet them and we planned on getting you to come along too last night, didn't we Hinata?" Hinata's face had turned back to normal and nodded, a small look of sorrow in her eyes that was nearly undetectable by the pink haired ninja.

"Well, if you are done practicing how about we go see them now?"

"Great. Come on Hinata." Naruto took one of Hinata's hands that was down by her side and pulled her towards Sakura, whose hand he also took. "Let's hurry, I've still got lots of practice to do today." Naruto nearly dragged the two girls behind him. Sakura protested this treatment verbally but didn't mind the fast pace since she needed to exercise her muscles. Hinata was weak legged but managed to keep enough power beneath them to be a burden to the other two.

Soon the three ninja had arrived outside the house of Tazuna and Inari. Naruto and Sakura let go of each other's hand, a smile traded between the two. Hinata slowly released her grip on the blonde boy's hand, slightly sad at having to end her contact with him. Naruto knocked on the door to the house and patiently waited for an answer. Several minutes passed before he knocked again followed by a loud shout of "Tazuna! Inari! It's Naruto! Open up!"

From behind the door a loud rumble could be heard followed by a the sound of the door being unlocked. The door opened and a large, rounded tan man stood in the doorway. "Who are you and what do you want?" asked the man, annoyance in his voice at being bothered.

"Oy, where are Tazuna and Inari? They live here." Naruto shot back his reply, a bit of worry about his two friends in his voice.

"Them? They moved out a while back after getting all those royalties from the bridge. I heard they moved to the house on the hill up over there." He pointed in the direction where a vague hill could be seen with a building of some sort on top. "Now get lost. I need to rest before I go to work." The man slammed the door shut in Naruto's face and re-latched the lock.

"They moved? Well, guess we should go check out their new house." Naruto turned around, grabbed the girls' hands again and took off towards the hill. Sakura became annoyed at being dragged about she finally managed to get Naruto to release her hand so she could follow on her own.

Naruto looked over to Hinata, "You want to go at it on your own too?"

Hinata shook her head, "N-No, it is okay. I do not mind." Her face turned a light red, but did not go to the extreme as was her norm. Unconsciously her hand tightened her grip and Naruto smiled.

"Don't worry Hinata. I won't drop you." The ninja arrived at their destination far too quickly for Hinata's liking. Naruto and Hinata made one last leap from a branch and landed near the open gate of the house followed shortly by a winded Sakura. They were impressed at the size of the house. It was huge compared to the old one that Tazuna and Inari used to live in.

Through the open gate Naruto saw Inari and three other youths running around with a dog chasing after them. Naruto waved at the boys and shouted out "Inari! I told you I would come back!" Inari stopped in his tracks and was run into by the other three boys and dog. He stumbled forward under the impact but moved with it towards Naruto.

"Naruto!" shouted Inari and his friends followed after him. From out of one of the house doors Tsunami and Tazuna stepped out after they heard the blonde's name. Naruto, Sakura and Hinata entered the compound, smiles on their faces and greeted the people.

"Who's the cute girl? Is she your girlfriend?" Inari asked while looking at Hinata approvingly. Naruto looked over to Hinata and down to their hands and let go, much to Hinata's dismay.

"No, no, this is just a friend of mine. Her name is Hinata Hyuga. She's weird but nice." Hinata blushed at his compliment, her fingers itching to touch, but she held them back. She stepped forward and bowed to the four kids and once more at Tazuna and Tsunami as they arrived on the scene.

Tsunami invited them all inside for a nice meal and tea so they could all catch up on what has happened to each other. Naruto gladly told of all his adventures during the Chunnin exam, his fight with Gaara, and the adventure to get Tsunade. He told them about his last confrontation with Sasuke, determination in his voice was evident when he said he would bring his friend back.

Tazuna told them how after the bridge was built the economy of Wave Country rose dramatically and business boomed. Soon after Tazuna was elected to the city council where had helped drive the development of their country into a true nation. He even mentioned talk of the council's desire to form a ninja village of their own and base it off of Konoha. Tazuna asked Naruto if he could assist him in talks with the Hokage and begin a discussion about a formal alliance and assistance.

Hinata sat in her chair, her back straight, and manners proper. She listened intently to the conversation and she thought of how this would affect the two countries, as was her duty if she were to become the heir to the Hyuga clan, as unlikely as that was in her mind. Hinata snapped back to reality when she felt Naruto prod her with his elbow and looked at her and waited for her response. Hinata felt horrified at her rudeness and blushed fiercely, her face towards the floor. "Gomen, gomen, please forgive me. I was thinking and, and, I am sorry." She bowed in her chair to the others at the table. They all stared at her for a few seconds before bursting out into laughter. Hinata looked from one person to another before she settled on her beloved's face.

Naruto saw how upset and scared she looked and calmed himself before he spoke to her. "Relax Hinata. All Tsunami asked was if you wanted some more tea." Naruto let a small chuckle slip by before regaining control. "We're all friends here, so just relax. You won't offend any of us."

"Hai." Hinata was still red in the face but cheered up at Naruto's words. She took a deep breathe and let it out slowly, her shoulders relaxed and her worries about insulting her hosts gone. "I would appreciate some more tea Tsunami-san. Thank you."

They spent nearly an hour talking before the genins decided to leave. Tazuna, Inari, and Tsunami said their goodbyes and told Naruto they would watch for him in the tournament. With that the young ninja took off back towards town. **'I wonder what everyone else is up to…'** thought Naruto.

MEANWHILE….

Chouji let out a loud belch, a smile on his face. He looked down at his empty plate and frowned. Chouji waved his hands at a nearby lady and she walked over to the table.

"Yes, sir? How can I help you?"

"I need three more plates of pork ribs, two plates of steamed dumplings, a plate of devil rolls, and a plate of sashimi please."

The waitress wrote down his order and put it in with the kitchen. Chouji sat back and nursed his drink while waiting for his food to arrive. Ino walked in the door and saw the large ninja at his booth, plates stacked high on the boy's table. She walked over to the boy and sat down across from him.

"I can not believe you. You are planning on entering the tournament and rather than spending your time training you are stuffing your face."

"I've told you before, this is training. I need all the energy I can get so I have to store up."

"But you looked so much better when you were skinny. Don't you care what others think?"

"Of course I don't. It is not my fault I am big boned. It's genetic." Ino just sighed and placed her hand on her forehead. The waitress came out with Chouji's rib order and placed them before the boy and took away some of his empty plates. Chouji dove into the food and picked the bones clean as Ino wished she could eat like that and not worry about it like him.

AND…

Kiba and Akamaru lay in a pile and took in several deep breathes. "Good job Akamaru. We just need to get the timing down more on the attack." Akamaru barked his reply which caused Kiba to laugh. "True, true, but it takes a lot out of us. I'm not sure I can go again." Akamaru rolled onto his feet and pushed himself up and barked rapidly in Kiba's face. "Your right Akamaru, we can't let him beat us."

Kiba propped himself up on his elbows and came to a sitting position. He took a quick breath and rose to his feet. He looked around at the fallen trees and dead logs that they had been practicing on and smiled. "Let's go Akamaru. One more time…"

ALSO…

Shino sat on the balls of his feet, a magnifying glass in his hand, and studied the bug before him intently. The bug held still for a second before it opened its wings and flew away. Shino put the glass back into his pocket and stood back to his full height. He continued his walk along the beach and eyed every insect he saw along the way. Gently a bug flew along the breeze and landed on Shino's nose and stared into the boys glasses. Shino raised his eyebrows above his glasses, surprise at seeing such a rare breed out here. Shino stood still and began the process of acquiring a new ally…..

PLUS…..

Lee had just finished his 338th lap around the city with 38 buckets of rock tied to a pole carried on his shoulders while wearing his traditional weights along with a set made to work on his arms. **'The flames of youth shall shine as brightly in me as they do in my friends! I will finish all 500 laps by night or I shall swim 300 laps from the buoy in the water and back using only my arms! Gai-sensei, you would be proud.'** Lee picked up his pace and ignored all the stares of the villagers. His smile shown brightly as he worked to meet his goal….

DON'T FORGET….

Tenten breathed hard, her scrolls unraveled at her feet, weapons scattered all around with targets shattered and torn. Neji nodded his approval from behind her and dodged as the kunai thrown in his direction hit the target dead center behind his head. The girl walked towards her teammate and picked up a water bottle she had nearby. Her hair had fallen out of its traditional buns and several strands clung to her forehead, the rest falling down to her neck and shoulders.

"Not bad." Neji smiled at his teammate as she took a long sip of water before putting it back near a tree.

"Not bad? That's it?" Tenten stuck her hands on her hips and scoffed at her teammate. "How about a little test to see how 'not bad' I am." Neji smiled and walked into the clearing. He stepped over and past the fallen and discarded weapons with ease to stand in front of the determined girl.

Neji prepared his stance and waited for her attack. "I could use some exercise…."

BACK TO OUR HERO

The three had just arrived on the outskirts of the town as the night began to creep in. They could see Lee out on the ocean as he swam out to sea and Shino on his way to the hotel. Hinata and Naruto spotted Ino at work as she dragged Chouji away from a restaurant. At this sight Naruto's stomach grumbled loudly and caught the attention of his two companions. Sakura laughed while Hinata hid her smile behind her fist. They made their way to the beach to find the Ramen Stand open with several customers seated and enjoying their meal. Randall and Remington saw the three ninja approach and waved in greeting. Randall went into the back and came out with a folding table while Remington produced three folding chairs from beneath the counter and passed them to his brother.

Randall unfolded the table and chairs and politely held out the chairs for the women. Randall helped Sakura in her chair while Naruto, who caught the idea, helped Hinata, which caused her to blush and smile so slightly. Naruto took his seat and was surprised when Randall produced menus from his back. Naruto was excited because most of the dishes were ramen based with the choice of mixing and matching flavors. Sakura's gaze turned to the salads immediately and ordered a simple house salad with light dressing. Hinata waited for Naruto to place his order which consisted of nearly six flavors of ramen before she asked for a single order of simple chicken ramen.

Randall quickly delivered their food while Remington took care of the customers at the stand itself. Randall stood near the table and quietly conversed with the ninja about their day. He was surprised to discover that Naruto was THE Naruto that the bridge was named after and amazed that he knew Tazuna personally.

"Do you think it would be possible for you to arrange a meeting with Tazuna? There is some… business my brother and I would like to discuss with him if he could find the time." Randall had a pleading look in his eyes and a small hint of hopefulness in his voice.

"No problem Randall. How about after the tournament?"

"That would be perfect. Thank you very much Naruto, Sakura, and Hinata. Please, let the meal be on the house." Randall bowed respectably to the three before he hurried off to tell his brother. Remington smiled after being told the news and went out to thank the three himself.

"You don't know how much this means to us. Thank you, thanks to all of you." Remington returned to the counter while Randall prepared desert for the people at the stand. The three genin talked amongst each other and told jokes as the sun finished its gentle set.

"Good thing you got an early start today Naruto," said Remington who came out after the people at the stand had left. "They are going to be closing the register office for tournament early today."

"Nani? Register office?" Naruto cocked his head to the side, confusion evident on his face.

"You didn't register? Today was the last day." Before the last words left his mouth Naruto was off in a flash towards the registration office. Unfortunately, he had no clue where its location was. He scrambled around the town as he looked for where it could be before he thought to ask for directions. Finally he calmed down enough to ask a nearby vendor but was unable to get an answer from the man. He flagged down a couple on a night stroll who ran in fear as the frantic boy ran towards them, a look of crazed desperation on him.

Naruto fell to his knees in despair and looked up at the sky and shouted to the world "Where is the damn registration office?" Naruto felt a tap on his shoulder and saw a young kid who pointed to a sign above his head.

**Registration Office**

Naruto scratched the back of his head and laughed at his own stupidity. He thanked the kid before he walked into the office. The man at the desk in the room pulled his key out from the lock on the desk drawer and had just stood to leave when he saw the blonde enter.

"Yes sir, how can I help you?" The man walked over towards Naruto. The man had on a trench coat similar in style to Anko's except it was black. Underneath he wore a black cotton t-shirt with a pocket that held a small pipe and tobacco. His pants were similar to the style worn by Kakashi except in blue. He chewed on a toothpick as he talked to the boy.

"I would like to register for the tournament tomorrow!" Naruto shouted his reply excitedly but became dismayed as the man shook his head. The man leaned back on the desk and sighed.

"I'm really sorry but registration closed ten minutes ago. I'm not allowed to add any more applicants. The guy who was supposed to be here till the end of the night was taken to the hospital earlier this morning after falling unconscious outside the Red Ocean hotel while on his morning jog." Naruto face faulted immediately as he recalled the demon bar of soap he tossed outside the window.

Naruto stood up and began to plead with the man. "Please, oh please sir. You gotta let me register. All my friends and I were going to participate. Surely there is some way to get me registered. I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I'm the bridge guy!"

The registrar raised an eyebrow at the name and grabbed a clipboard that was on the desk. He scanned the page quickly and smiled. "Well I'll be damned. You don't need to worry kid. Seems someone already registered you. I thought you looked familiar. Haha." Naruto let out a shout of joy while he exited the office that the registrar locked behind him as he followed the boy out. "I'll be rooting for ya kid. Kick some ass." He turned, walked down the street and disappeared into the night whistling all the while.

Naruto began to walk back to the beach and catch up with his friends. On his walk he was troubled with the thought of who registered him. **'Was it Sakura? Did she know that I would forget and register for me? What a teammate.' **Naruto arrived at the beach to find only Hinata still at the table. She quietly sipped a cup of green tea and watched the other people on the beach as they danced around a fire. Randall and Remington served drinks to the dancers while they made a nice profit.

Naruto sat down next to Hinata who squeaked at his sudden arrival. "You won't believe it, Hinata. Heck, even I can't believe it, ME! Someone already registered me. I bet it was Sakura, she usually takes care about these kind of things. I usually forget. Eh hehe." He scratched the back of his head and looked at Hinata who had turned a slight red, her fingers pressed against each other slightly.

"A-Ano, Naruto-kun. Actually….that is to say….umm….I registered you." Hinata could not look at her crush. Her face was so red it almost glowed in the dark. Naruto stared back at the girl a little stunned.

"You registered me Hinata?" The awe in his voice was evident. He never would have expected this weird, quiet, shy girl to do that for him. He ran forward and clasped her hands in his. "Thank you so much. You have no idea how happy I was that someone had registered me. I was scared I wouldn't get to compete. Thank you Hinata. Thank you."

Hinata stared down at her hands that were held so gently (in her mind) by his and could not fight the urge. She passed out. Naruto quickly caught her as she slumped forward and held her head up. "Hinata, Hinata, wake up Hinata. Come on, Hinata, wake up." Naruto felt her head, and though she felt warm it didn't seem to have reached the point of fever.

"Naruto-kun…." Whispered Hinata in her daze. Naruto leaned in closer to hear her but still could not make out the words. A smile formed on her lips as she dreamt about her love. Naruto relaxed as he saw her face grin in a cute smile. The clouds parted and let the moons light shine down on the heiress. The soft silver beams highlighted her features. **'Inari was right after all. She is kinda cute. Nani? Where did that come from, though it is true.' ** He stared down at the girl, her head cradled in his arms.

Slowly Hinata returned to the land of the conscious only to be struck by the image of her crush, her head held in his lap, staring down at her and smiling. "Whew, I'm glad you are okay Hinata. You had me worried for a bit."

"I am sorry. I did not mean to be a bother." Her father's words echoed in her mind as she thought how bothersome she must be to Naruto. Naruto shook his head and helped the kunoichi to her feet. Her heart warmed at his touch and cooled as he let go of her.

"You're not a bother Hinata. You are anything but. In fact, you are one of the strongest women I know, and not just physically." Hinata looked at the boy with confusion in her eyes. Naruto scratched his head as he tried to find the right words. "What I mean is, like, when in the chuunin exam, you stood up to Neji with all your might and refused to give up. That was amazing. And that jyuuken stuff was amazing." Naruto became flustered as the look of confusion remained on her face.

"But N-Neji beat me, he even nearly killed me. I am n-not strong. I am weak." Naruto refused to let her sulk and continued on in his effort to raise her spirit.

"Whether you won or lost doesn't matter. What matters is that you did not give up."

"Thank you Naruto, b-but I am not that strong. You see….umm…w-what makes me s-strong is….is…." Hinata tried to tell the blonde, but was interrupted by an errant Frisbee that struck the blonde's face at that instant. Naruto fell back onto the table and caused it to flip over on top of him. Hinata quickly moved the table and found Naruto with stars in his eyes. Randall came over to check on the two and his table. He was relieved to find Naruto unhurt from his bad throw, though he was a little sad to see his poor table broken.

Naruto recovered quickly and waved off help. He simply stretched his arms above his head and laughed off the damage. He recalled the last few seconds before being struck by the discus and turned back to Hinata. "Ne, Hinata, what was it that makes you strong? I don't think I heard you."

Hinata shook her head at the blonde as she let a full smile fill her face. "It's not important Naruto-kun, but one day, I promise I will tell you." Naruto looked at her strangely and shrugged. **'Women. The Kami alone understand them, and maybe they don't.'** Naruto and Hinata walked back to the hotel early that night so that they could get plenty of sleep for the tournament.

"G-Good night Naruto-kun. Thank you for a good day. I….I hope we can do it again some time." Hinata's face turned red and she quickly ducked into her room before Naruto could reply. Naruto just smiled and walked back to his room. **'She sure is weird. Though she is cute.'** Naruto unlocked his door and entered his room. He saw Kiba and Akamaru snuggled on the floor near the window. Naruto smiled and closed the door. He went to the bedroom, changed into his pajamas and crawled into bed. His last thoughts were of the strange girl who he had spent much of the day with.

_Wow, this was a long chapter for me. Hope that you guys enjoyed it. Feel free to leave a review for good or ill. Can't fix what I don't know ain't broke. Thanks for reading. Next chapter:_

_**All Set! (With a Few Surprises)**_


	4. Chapter3: All Set With a Few Surprises

_**All Set! (With a Few Surprises)**_

__Naruto cheered at the wild crowds that awaited him in Konoha. He smiled broadly and pulled his two teammates close to his side. Sakura blushed while Sasuke looked annoyed at the attention. A banner was strung across the street:

**WELCOME BACK TEAM SEVEN**

"Come on Sasuke, cheer up. We're back in Konoha and a full team once again." Naruto released his hold on his teammates and lead them to the best restaurant in town, Ichiraku's. There sat the other nine ninja of the Konoha Twelve, all of them smiled and waved at the three members of team seven. Ichiraku welcomed his favorite customer back with heaping helping of his latest ramen creation free of charge. Naruto grabbed a pair of chopstick, broke them apart and began to dive into his meal with a shout of "Itadakimasu."

Naruto awoke from his blissful dreams as the first rays of morning began to creep through his window. Naruto debated on whether to get up or try and return to his dream world. He opted for the second option when the phone began to ring. He pushed himself up on the bed and reached over to the infernal device and answered it. "Good morning Naruto. This is your wake up call so… WAKE UP!!" Naruto yelped as he pulled the phone away from his ears.

"Geez, Sakura-chan, do you have be so loud?"

"No, but your awake now aren't you?"

Hai, hai. Thank you Sakura-chan."

"Anytime Naruto. See you at breakfast." Naruto hung up the phone and kicked the covers off the bed. He let out a long yawn and headed towards the bathroom. Just as he was about to step foot into the room he stopped and pulled his foot back. Naruto smiled at his intelligence and bent over to pick up the bar of soap. '**Not this morning.'** Naruto smiled as he threw the soap over his shoulder and back towards his bedroom.

Unfortunately, he threw the soap too high and it was hit by the ceiling fan positioned over the bed. The soap struck the blades and bounced off a lamp before it ricocheted back to the blonde. Naruto turned back towards the sound of a lamp breaking just in time to have the soap land right in his mouth. Naruto spit the soap out onto the floor and gagged at the taste of the cleaner. Naruto stalked over to the bar and grabbed it in his hands. The bar slipped from his grip and struck him between the eyes before it landed on the boy's bed. Now furious, Naruto walked to the soap bar, carefully gripped it and threw it out the window. Sadly, the window was closed and the bar sailed threw the glass before striking an unaware Kiba who had just followed Akamaru out of his room's window.

Naruto, not aware of Kiba's misfortune, frowned as he looked at the window and its new hole. **'Tsunade-baa-chan is gonna kill me when she sees this bill.'** Naruto shook his head and quickly showered and changed into his orange jumpsuit. He checked the living room and saw that Kiba and Akamaru had already left. He left his hotel room and entered the hall. He started to head for the stairs when he noticed one of the doors in the hall was left open. He recognized it as Tenten and Hinata's room. He carefully walked towards the open room and listened for any sound inside.

Naruto could here a soft hum in the air, a gentle rhythmic sound that seemed to fill his surroundings. He pressed his back to the wall and peaked his head around the corner to see inside. His breathe caught in his throat as he saw Hinata in the middle of the room with all the furniture moved to one side. She wore a simple white tee and black sweats and her hitai-ite strapped around her eyes. She hummed softly and matched her breathes with that steady sound. Slowly she began to move in graceful and smooth, but strong and determined movements. Naruto watched as she effortlessly glided through her routine.

"She has trained hard these past weeks." Naruto's skin crawled and he spun around quickly to see Shino behind him watching his teammate. "Ever since she was defeated by Neji she has practiced and trained hard to gain acceptance from her family and recognition from the one she cares most for." Naruto raised his eyebrow in confusion, not quite understanding Shino's message. **'I can understand her wanting the acceptance of her family, but who does she want recognition from?'**

Naruto looked back into the room as the sound of her humming reached a crescendo. She abruptly stopped, her right leg extended forward as she kneeled with her left, her arms resting by her side. Hinata brought her right arm up to the back of her head and began to undo the small knot holding the hitai-ite on. Naruto realized he needed to move quickly and hastily turned around before taking off. Sadly, he only got about 3 inches as his face collided with the bucket of ice that Tenten carried. Naruto fell backwards and his eyes began to spin. Tenten set the bucket of ice down and rushed to the blonde. From the room came Hinata, a look of shock on her face at the blonde knocked semi-unconscious at her doorstep.

"What happened Tenten-chan?" Hinata asked as she quickly examined Naruto before bending down by his side. Naruto's eyes refocused and he sat up, his face near Hinata's.

"I don't have a clue Hinata-chan. I came back up the stairs lugging this bucket of ice," she taps the bucket with her foot, "and I find him looking into our room." Tenten looks down at Naruto, a small hint of anger in her eyes and voice.

"Shino was here too and he said Hinata had been training hard as we watched her do that dance thing."

"The only person I saw here was you Naruto."

"But he was here! I swear it….uh, Hinata?" **'He…he was watching me….?'** Hinata's body shook slightly and her eyes began to roll into the back of her head as her mind lost all focus. As she began to fall back Naruto caught her and cradled her head in his arms. "Why does this always happen? I should get Tsunade-baa-chan to check her out. If she did this in a mission it would be terrible. Hinata, hey, Hinata, wake up."

Tenten just shook her head and muttered "baka" under her breath. After several minutes Hinata came back to the world of the living. Her eyes cracked open and she saw Naruto holding her in his arms. "Welcome back" said Naruto, that goofy smile on his face. This sent the poor girl back to her former unconscious state to a shocked Naruto. Tenten had had enough and shooed the blonde away.

"Don't worry Naruto," said Tenten "She'll be fine in a bit. We will meet you downstairs for breakfast in a while, okay?" Naruto checked on Hinata one last time before nodding and passed the girl to Tenten. Naruto made his way towards the stairs but looked back to see Tenten as she carried the out of it Hinata into the room before shutting the door. Naruto walked down the stairs and looked towards the hotels dining area. He saw the rest of the ninja from Konoha gathered in the room and proceeded to make his way to meet up with them. Chouji, Shikamaru, and Ino sat at a booth while Sakura, Lee, and Neji sat at a large table with room for three others. Naruto saw Shino over by the kitchen window placing an order.

Naruto went and sat down next to Sakura who was engaged in a small debate with Lee over the dos and don'ts of spandex. "Good morning Sakura-chan, Neji, Lee." Naruto nodded at the two other boys and looked down at the food on their plates. "Hey Neji, what is that?"

"I am not exactly sure. It is some food from one of the Western countries. I think I heard them called 'Tacos' or some such".

"Breakfast tacos to be exact, or taquitos, whichever catches your fancy." Remington and Randall sat down at the table with the Konoha ninja. They each had a plate piled high with the food and looked eager to dig in. "They set up a buffet like system so you can make your own." Randall nodded his greetings before digging into his meal. "Hey no fair, you're cheating!" Remington glared at his brother quickly before digging into his own plate of food. Naruto watched in horrid fascination as the piles on their plates quickly began to shrink. **'This must be how people feel when they watch me eat ramen,'** thought Naruto.

Naruto decided to try some of the odd food before he completely discredited it. He noticed as he stood up that all the Konoha nin had remnants of similar items on their plates (except Shino, who had sat by himself at a table in the corner). Naruto walked over to the buffet line and grabbed a plate. He saw a sign labeling the strange flat bread item as a 'Tortilla' and a large tray of scrambled eggs. He saw some shredded cheese called 'American', whatever that is, and several small trays of a variety of vegetables.

Naruto grabbed a couple of tortillas, placed some eggs in the middle, and added a few vegetable and a medium spiced 'salsa' before returning to his seat. As he neared the table he heard plates rattle and utensils fall to the floor as Remington stood from his chair followed a fraction behind by Lee as they glared at each other.

Naruto took his seat and asked "What's up with them?"

"They are arguing over which is better, Lee's 'Curry of Life' or Remington's 'Tacos of Power.' Personally, I think they are both idiots." Randall shook his head as he finished his sentence and wished his brother would just let it go.

Remington and Lee continued their little debate for several minutes, though debate may not be the right word. Unless a debate consists of "Tacos of Power" and "Curry of Life," then yes it was a debate, otherwise no, it wasn't.

The argument was settled as Randall smacked his brother on the head and pointed towards the empty plate in front of him. "Done." A smile graced Randall's face when his brother realized that he had been distracted.

"Damn. Okay, you won this time." Remington sighed and sat back down, ashamed that Lee had distracted him and now his brother had won the bet. Naruto looked at the two brothers and shrugged his shoulders before taking a bite of the taquito. **'It's no cup o' Ramen, but it's not bad.'**

"This isn't bad. Where does this come from again?" asked Naruto before he took another bite.

"It comes from our home land. It has been awhile since we have had some so we are enjoying it while we can." Randall replied as he considered getting another plate or two.

"Where is that exactly? I do not think you ever really said," inquired Sakura, looking at the two ramen vendors. Randall coughed and Remington paused a second before eating his last taquito.

"The place…you know…*cough* that we are…. from. So, are you excited about the tournament Naruto?" Randall answered, trying to get them to switch topics. Sakura shrugged her shoulders and let it go for now, but was determined to figure out the answer later.

"You bet. I can't wait to show off my new moves and skills." Naruto finished his breakfast but still felt slightly hungry. "Well," said Naruto as he pushed his chair away from the table, "I'm gonna go for a walk and stretch. I'll see you guys at the tournament in while. See ya." Naruto walked away from the table, waved at all his friends and left the dining room. As he walked towards the hotel exit he saw Hinata and Tenten walking down the stairs. He changed his course to meet the two.

"Hey Hinata. Sorry about earlier. You sure you are okay?" Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, a smile of embarrassment on his whiskered face.

"I-I am f-fine Naruto-kun." **'He was worried? Oh, Naruto-kun…'** Hinata's face flushed only slightly as she bowed to the blonde. Naruto raised an eyebrow unsure as to why she was bowing to him.

"Well, if you are sure. I'm going out for a walk. I'll see you at the tournament, okay?"

Tenten nodded her agreement and moved towards the dining room as Randall and Remington exited. Naruto turned to join the two vendors in order to convince them to make at least one bowl of ramen for him when he heard a soft sound behind him. He couldn't make it out so he turned around to see what it was. Hinata faced the ground, her fingers touching and pressing lightly.

"What? Did you say something Hinata?"

"A-ano…could I…come with…never mind." She sulked and proceeded to follow Tenten until Naruto called out to her.

"You want to come with Hinata? I'm just gonna walk around a bit, but you are welcome to join." Hinata turned around to look at her beloved and smiled. She nodded her head and moved towards the blonde boy and they walked to the exit, following Randall and Remington. Randall and Remington made their way back to the ramen shack, Hinata and Naruto not far behind when Naruto and Hinata stopped their pace. They spotted an irate Kiba growling and mumbling as he made his way towards the hotel.

Hinata waved her hand at her teammate and, at the sight of her wave, Kiba made his way towards the two. Kiba rubbed his head and grumbled as he closed the distance between his friends. Hinata looked a little worried about her teammate. "Kiba-kun, are you okay?"

"Yeah, just pissed off is all."

"What happened?" Hinata stepped next to her teammate and inspected his head to make sure he was not injured.

"You won't believe it! I was just going out the window about to take Akamaru out for our morning walk and just as I am about to ready for landing on the tree I get hit by a bar of soap. A BAR OF SOAP!" Kiba yelled, his arms out wide, anger in his voice. "Who throws a bar of soap? If I find the joker who did it I will throttle him!"

Naruto laughed nervously as he scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, who would throw a bar of soap through a window? I mean that would be totally reckless and I would never do anything like that. Heh heh heh," Naruto looked at Kiba and quickly turned back towards the ramen shack and took off at a fast walk before Kiba realized who threw the soap.

Hinata looked back and forth between her love and her teammate before moving after Naruto. Kiba looked at Naruto quizzically and left for the hotel to catch breakfast. Hinata caught up to Naruto and fell in step behind him. The two made their way to the ramen shack but could find no sign of the two brothers. From behind the wall where Naruto had seen Randall enter previously incoherent shouting could be heard. The two leaned closer and head a large racket, the sound of dishes breaking, and several choice words thrown about.

Suddenly the door the back area flew open and Randall stepped outside. He quickly slammed the door shut and looked at his two new friends. He held his arm and limped as he moved towards the Konoha kids. He put on a smile and sat in a chair where he waved the two to join him. After Naruto and Hinata had sat down he took a deep breathe and looked to his visitors. "So….what brings you two out this way? Shouldn't you be preparing for the tournament?" Randall looked at Naruto as he asked this question.

"I am, but I need a bowl of ramen first. I can't start the day without my ramen fix." Naruto smiled at Randall who shook his head and got back up from his seat. He limped his way over to the shack and whipped up a quick meal of ramen for the boy. He brought the meal back to the table with a pair of chopsticks and a napkin. Naruto grabbed the chopsticks, broke them apart and dug in after saying his thanks.

Hinata watched the blonde dive into his meal and realized she was hungry. It was late morning but she had yet to eat anything. Hinata's face turned bright crimson as a gurgle echoed from her stomach that made Naruto and Randall look at the embarrassed lass and laughed. Hinata looked down at her lap, her hands pressed firmly there. "I'm sorry," she said, her embarrassment evident in her voice.

"It seems to me that you are a little bit hungry." Randall chuckled a bit then winced as his arm pained him again. He mentally shook it off and resumed his conversation. "Is there anything you would like? I could make you some Miso Soup and rice if you would like." Hinata nodded her head and Randall returned to the kitchen to prepare her food.

Hinata watched as Naruto devoured his meal with a little too much enthusiasm. Most people are disturbed by the speed the blonde eats his most favorite of meals but Hinata simply enjoyed any time that she can watch her favorite ninja. Naruto inhaled a few too many noodles at once and began to choke slightly. He hit his chest several times while Hinata looked worried before he took a large gulp and swallowed the food. He let out a quick sigh then returned immediately back to his meal. Hinata raised her fist in front of her mouth and giggled at the boy's action.

Randall returned from the kitchen with two bowls, one in each hand. He placed the bowl of Miso soup in front of Hinata and the bowl of steamed white rice next to it. Hinata lowered her head and thanked Randall for the food. Randall nodded his head to the girl before he excused himself. "I should check on my brother. He might not have calmed it down yet." Randall disappeared behind the not so hidden compartment again followed by shrieks, more crashing, and more choice words.

Naruto, his meal finished, looked at Hinata and shrugged his shoulders. Naruto sat back in his chair, stomach content now that his ramen needs had been met. Naruto waited patiently as Hinata ate her meal. He used this time of peace to think about the upcoming tournament. He had not felt this nervous since the first day of the chuunin exams. Naruto was pulled from his thoughts as a strange sound echoed from Hinata's direction. As he looked at the shy girl she blushed and set her empty soup bowl back down. Naruto merely laughed as he realized the noise he heard was her accidentally slurping the last bit of her soup.

Naruto stood up from the table and grabbed the dishes and placed them on the counter. Hinata got up from her seat and joined the blonde and together they began their walk to the stadium. Neither of the two spoke as they made their way, each lost in their own thoughts. As the two passed the hotel they caught sight of Shino waiting by the entrance and the two paused their walk. Shino joined his two friends and with a nod of their heads continued on.

The group passed by the shop where they had bought their suits and again stopped as Sakura and Ino came out, each with a bag, and joined the three. In a barbeque restaurant across the street Chouji and Shikamaru spotted the group and made their way to the exit. The group moved out again, Chouji and Shikamaru trailing a bit behind as Chouji devoured a bag of chips. The group paused when they heard a series of barks echo from behind them and they waited for Kiba and Akamaru's arrival. The group made their way to the stadium which was now in sight. People stood in long lines along the outside of the arena waiting to get to their seats or to get to the contest area. The group saw Neji leaning on a tree outside the contest entrance and made their way to him. Neji looked up and nodded at the other Konoha nin.

"Tenten and Lee are already inside." Neji got up from the tree and walked in front of Naruto and shocked everyone when he extended his hand to the blonde. "Good luck, dobe." Neji smirked as the blonde took his hand in a firm grip.

"Thanks, Neji-teme. I'll see you in the stands." The two released their grip and broke apart, the group separated into participants and observers. Shino, Kiba, and Chouji made their way into the arena, Naruto not far behind when he stopped and turned back around. He walked over to Sakura and Hinata and took their hands in his. 'You'll be cheering for me, right?" Both replied they would and he left them and made his way to the contest entrance. Naruto got in line behind a tall dark-skinned man and waited as the line slowly moved forward every few seconds. The line progressed slowly, but efficiently, with no signs of trouble. As the line progressed there was little talking amongst the participants, their attention on the future in their mind.

Naruto finally reached the end of the line and approached the man at the booth. The man at the booth took down Narutos name, took a quick photo and handed Naruto a slip of paper with the number eight on it. Naruto followed the other contestants out a doorway and into the light of the arena. The arena was huge. It was a large circle nearly two hundred meters in diameter. In the giant circle sat eight squares each twenty meters in length and width. The squares where placed ten meters apart from each other in a three by three pattern with the middle section barren.

Naruto turned his attention from the inner part of the stadium to its stands. He could see the stadium filled with people but could not spot his friends in the crowd. Naruto stumbled forward as a large portly man pushed him forward. Naruto scowled but continued on. Security for the tournament guided the contests towards their correct platform. As Naruto walked to arena eight he caught sight of some of his friends in their squares already. He smiled when he saw Lee and Tenten in the same square together. He moved to the square with a sign proclaiming it as arena eight and he walked up onto the concrete platform. He was surrounded by many people, men, women, some old, some young, but all looking determined. Naruto scanned the crowd quickly and counted about thirty seven people in his square.

Naruto's attention was shifted to the barren space in the middle of the eight platforms and saw Tazuna with a microphone in his hands. A loud squeal echoed from the PA system set up around the arena. "Greetings ladies and gentlemen. I am Tazuna, current member of the council and your announcer for the evening. I would like to thank everyone, audience members and participants, for coming and taking part in this event. Today we will be having a preliminary match to bring our large number of contestants to a more manageable level."

Tazuna moved his gaze from the audience to the contest participants. "The rules for your preliminary match are simple. When I give the word each square will begin to fight. The style is that of a free-for-all with the last two standing or conscious fighters being the winner for the square. If you land outside of your ring then you are out. The last rule is no weapons aloud. Everyone got that?" He quickly glanced around the arena then smiled. "Good, FIGHT!"

The command was so quick and sudden that many people were left stunned at the proclamation. These people were easy pickings for those that moved into action immediately. In the first ten seconds at least twenty contestants were forced out of the arena or forced into blissful unconsciousness. Naruto, who was one of the shocked, received a back hand from a large man in front of him and sent flying backwards towards the edge of his arena. He reached out and grabbed hold of a mans elbow as the man cocked his arm back to deliver another punch to the person he had picked as his target. Suddenly he was thrown out of the arena while Naruto was moving to the center to take revenge on the man that hit him.

Naruto landed behind the man and delivered a brutal hit to the man's left kidney that caused him to yell out and stumble to the ground. The man threw an arm in a sweeping motion towards his assailant but hit only air as Naruto leapt above the man's head and faced him. Naruto smirked before he kneed the man on the chin. The man's head flew backwards and he landed hard on the concrete floor but did not rise back up. Naruto was about to enjoy his victory when he narrowly dodged a kick to his head but could not avoid the leg sweep from a second adversary that sent the ninja backwards and his head collided with the floor roughly. Naruto gritted his teeth and rolled to the right and avoided having his head stomped and received a sharp kick to his leg. Naruto continued to roll until he faced the floor then he pushed off with his arms and landed in a crouched position. He faced his targets and saw them focused on him.

Naruto leapt at the brown haired girl on the left but was thrown off course when he collided with a thrown body in mid air. The body landed on Naruto and had him pinned down for a second as he pushed the unconscious body off of him. The two opponents ran towards the blonde, knocking any and all that got in their way out of it. Naruto had finally had enough of this and decided to make the odds more fair. aruto then threw that thought out of his mind and decided to win this thing. Naruto quickly formed his most used set of hand seals and shouted for all to hear "Shadow Clone Technique!" Suddenly platform eight was filled with Narutos who unleashed havoc. They dragged people out of the arena, double or triple teamed others while his main focus was to gain revenge on the two that decided to team up against him.

Naruto personally performed the Uzumaki Combo on them each before tossing their bodies unceremoniously out of the arena. When the carnage was over all that remained was Naruto in the middle with a smile on his face, his arms crossed over his chest in a cocky pose. Naruto looked at the other square to see how the fights were going but could not see into two of the arenas due to the smoke in the air and a bright light coming from another.

As Naruto waited he saw Shino kick an opponent out of the ring which left him and one other as the last two people in the ring. Naruto looked and saw Lee and Tenten back to back, also the only ones standing. As the dust in the smoky arena fell Naruto saw Kiba and Kiba and some girl standing and staring at each other. Naruto could not see the last four arenas so he had to wait for them to finish. As Naruto walked around his platform he saw a body twitch and moved to assist the man since he would be the second person to make it through.

Naruto pulled the man up but was surprised when he fell right back down. A loud grunt of pain was heard from underneath the man so Naruto pulled him up again but kept pulling until the man fell forward off of another man. This man was skinny and frail looking. His clothes were dirty and his hair was messed in all directions. He wore a dirt brown shirt that had tears and rips all along it and dark green pants with holes in the knees. The man wore shoes with a hole for his big toe on the left and his last two toes on the right were exposed as well. "What the hell happened?" asked the man.

"You won," stated Naruto simply and helped the man to his feet. Naruto wiped his hands on his pants after letting go of the man before scanning the arena again. The cheers from the crowd had grown louder and finally they ended with a loud cheer and several stood and clapped. With another squeal the PA came back on and Tazuna cleared his throat in the mike. "Ladies and gentleman, we have our victors. In the first square Chouji Akimichi and Tsurichiro Hanabishi. In square two: Kazuama Shingami and Hyouuryuusha. In the third square: Bob and Jin. In the fourth square Kiba and Akamaru Inuzuka and NamiYue. In the fifth square: Shino Aburame and Hiro Tsubara. In the sixth square: Rock Lee and Tenten. In the seventh square: Paco Hoto and Sasuke Ryoko. And finally, in square eight: Naruto Uzumake and Kanaho Tenshi."

A loud cheer and applause played across the great arena and the winning participants smiled and waved, well except Shino who doesn't smile or wave. Tazuna let the applause continue for several minutes before getting them to quiet down and continued to speak. "I would like the once again thank all who participated. We now have our 16 finalists. Tomorrow morning we shall begin the semi-semi-finals. I hope you will join us all again. Thank you, and good afternoon." Tazuna bowed and the crowd exploded again. The sixteen finalists left there platforms and headed for the nearest exit.

Please review, because if you don't I may keep righting forever or I may stop. Who knows? Criticism helps people. Looking forward to you all reading.


	5. Chapter 3 All Set More Surprises

All Set (continued)

Hinata clapped her hands along with the rest of the crowd as the finalists made their exit. Hinata smiled and leaned back in her chair, contentment etched on her face.** 'He made it. I knew he would because he never gives up. Now they will all be able to see what I see when I look at him.'** Suddenly Hinata felt a two pairs of hands grab an arm each and her eyes shot open. She saw that Ino and Sakura were the owners of the hands and the two girls quickly pulled Hinata from her seat and moved towards the nearest exit.

"Tch, women. Always so troublesome," said Shikamaru as he left his seat and followed his teammate and captive out of the arena. Neji nodded his agreement as he followed the lazy ninja to the exit.

"Come on, come on, we gotta hurry." Ino said as she moved through the crowd, Hinata and Sakura in tow.

"A-Ano, Ino-chan, but why m-must we hurry?" Hinata asked after she narrowly dodged slamming into a small boy.

"That's simple," said Sakura, "the finalist will have almost reached the exit by now." Hinata still didn't understand what the big rush was but did not resist the girls as they pulled her along down the hallway to the finalist's hall exit.

Naruto practically bounced off the walls with excitement. He and his fellow Konoha nin talked about their matches as they made their way to the exit. Naruto's smile increased as he saw Sakura, Hinata, and Ino by the exit. He waved energetically and took off at a run to meet them.

"Hey, Sakura-chan! Hinata!" Naruto skidded to a halt in front of the three girls with his face only inches from Hinata's. Hinata's face quickly began to redden but this fact was left unnoticed by Naruto as he quickly began to talk about his fight. His face repeatedly moved from Sakura to Ino and Hinata and back over again as he relayed his tale. Naruto brought his story to an end just as the rest of the Konoha nin join him and the girls.

As the group began to chat Naruto finally noticed the red color on Hinata's face and decided to investigate. "Hey, Hinata," Naruto called to her. Hinata twitched as he called her name and realized he was focused on her.

"Y-yes, N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata's heart began to beat a little faster as Naruto peered at her more intently.

"Well I was wondering if you were feeling okay or not? You look kinda red in the face like you have a fever." Naruto approached closer to the Hyuuga girl. Hinata used all her willpower to force her gentle allure of unconsciousness away but it was sadly all for naught when the Naruto placed his forehead against hers. Ino was quick to intercept the Hyuuga girls fall to the floor and brace the girl back up. Sakura took one look at the unconscious Hinata and delivered a forceful blow to Naruto's head that sent the boy flying threw the air and into a nearby wall.

"Naruto, you are such an idiot. Look what you did." Sakura yelled at her teammate and checked up on Hinata.

"But I didn't do anything. I was just checking to see if she had a fever. Obviously she wasn't feeling good if she passed out, right?" Naruto pleaded his case but his friends merely shook there heads and muttered "baka" at the blonde. "Man, why does this kind of thing always happen to me?"

Unknown to Naruto that same question had passed through the thoughts of Hinata Hyuuga. Deep in the locked chambers of her subconscious mind sat Hinata in a beautifully furnished bedroom with a large four poster bed in one corner, a tall and wide wardrobe stood in the opposite corner, a full length mirror sat a few feet from the wardrobe and posters lined her wall. All the posters depicted her favorite blonde in some sort of pose from flashing a thumb up, to his foxy grin, to him leaping from a tree into the air.

Hinata sat on the edge of the bed, her jacket discarded on the floor and her body hunched over, occasional sighs poured forth from the girl. She sat staring at a small Naruto-kun rag doll with his signature orange jacket and pants and his whiskers that gave him the fox like appearance. Slowly she placed the doll on the bed and looked up at the endless white ceiling of the room.

"Why does this always happen to me? Why am I so pathetic?" Hinata stood up and paced around her room. "I am supposed to be the heir to the great Hyuuga clan but all I ever do is mess things up and fail. I can't even face the one person I admire the most without blushing and at just the slightest touch I pass out." Hinata ceased her pacing and collapsed onto her bed, her face buried in a pillow. She reached out and brought the Naruto-kun doll towards her and pulled her face from the soft pillow.

"I just want you to notice me and acknowledge me." Hinata's voice softened to just above a whisper as she finished her sentence and her eyes began to tighten as she felt tears begin to form. "A weakling like me doesn't deserve someone as kind and caring as you." With these words she sat up and pulled her arm back to launch the doll.

Just as she brought her arm forward a pair of hands closed in upon hers, sealing the doll in safety, and gently brought her arm back down. Hinata opened her tear filled eyes and blinked furiously as she was unable to believe what she saw.

"Don't tell me that you are giving up on me already." Naruto smiled down at Hinata who could only breathe as she stared at her favorite blonde. "You need to stay strong and never give up. I care about you."

"No you don't. You only care about Sakura. You have never really looked at me ever!" Hinata's tears continued to fall down her face and she began to sob. Naruto embraced the girl in a strong hug with her face sobbing into his shoulder. Naruto rubbed her back with one hand and held her head gently with the other hand.

"Hey, hey, there. Come on now. That's not true at all."

"Yes it is," sobbed Hinata. "You only think I am a weird girl, that I am worthless." Naruto pushed Hinata away from his shoulder and forced her to look at him in his eyes. The clear blue of his eyes met with the opal white of her eyes.

"I do not think you are worthless. I would never think that someone is worthless. All my life I was shunned and told how worthless I was but I try my best to prove myself to them, to show them that I am not the worthless boy they think I am. You are a pretty, kind, a little weird, and sweet person and that makes you worth more than all the ramen on the planet."

Hinata sniffled, her eyes still firmly locked with Naruto's. "R-really?"

"Well, maybe not all the ramen," said Naruto as he grinned his foxy grin that brought a soft giggle to Hinata. Naruto brought one hand up to her face and wiped the tear tracks from one cheek and then the other.

"But.."

"No buts. No what ifs. All I ask is that you stay strong and not give up on me and especially on yourself."

"I promise Naruto-kun. I will not give up."

Naruto gently embraced the girl who returned his hug with force. Hinata buried her face in his chest and curled up to him. Naruto held the girl and gently stroked her back before he let out a sad sigh. "Hinata, it's time to wake up."

"Not yet. Please do not go yet." Naruto looked down at the girl in his arms and nodded his head. He continued to hold Hinata as the world faded to white.

"Hey, guys, she's waking up." Hinata slowly cracked open her eyes and found Tenten, Ino, Neji, and Naruto looking down on her. She looked around the room and recognized it as her hotel room. She looked and saw she was in her bed with the sheet pulled about her.

"Good evening sleepy head," said Ino to the pale eyed girl, a smile evident on the blonde girls face.

"That must have been some dream you were having," said Tenten, a mischievous grin on her face. "You kept mumbling the whole time. I wonder what it was about." Tenten looked from Hinata to Naruto and back again before winking at the Hyuuga girl.

Neji stood up from beside the bed and said "Now that Hinata-sama is awake I shall take my leave. Goodbye Hinata-sama." Neji bobbed his head slightly and left the hotel room. Ino just rolled her eyes as Neji left and returned her attention back to Hinata.

"It is a good thing you woke up now. We were going to head for a karaoke place in a little bit. We thought it would be best if you got some rest but this idiot," Ino tilted her head towards Naruto, "insisted on checking up on you first."

Hinata's heart began to flutter and she looked at Naruto. He wore a sheepish grin and scratched the back of his head. "Eh, it's no big deal really. I'd worry about any of my friends after all." Hinata's happiness wavered for a second before it returned in full force. **'For now, I am happy to be his friend.'**

"Thank you, Naruto-kun," Hinata was slightly shocked after she finished her sentence because she realized she did not stutter that time.

"Well, we only have a little bit of time to get ready so time to go Naruto." Ino began to push the boy towards the exit.

"But we still have thirty minutes left before we were going to leave. Ouch, hey, not so hard."

"Move it baka. Go!" Ino pushed the blonde boy out of the room and into the hall before she slammed the door shut and returned to join Hinata and Tenten. "Okay, we have thirty minutes until we leave so, Hinata, what were you dreaming about?" Ino and Tenten press in on Hinata and begin their interrogation.

Naruto looked around the room he shared with the other Konoha males. Naruto was doing his best to drown out Kiba's song about asking who released the hounds or some such nonsense. After Kiba finished the song he was met with boo's from his friends and the lowest score from the machine for the night. Kiba angrily sat in his chair and grumbled. "What the hell do they know about music anyway?" Akamaru barked his agreement with Kiba and nestled himself deeper in Kiba's jacket.

Kiba suddenly jerked in his seat as Lee appeared in front him. "Kiba-kun, your youthful fiery spirit has inspired me! Now I will follow your lead and let the flames of youth guide me in my journey!" With those words Lee grabbed the microphone and hit the random button on the song machine. Lee's voice filled the room and caused several members to cringe and others with more sensitive ears to cry out in pain. Even stoic Shino was forced to twitch at the attempt of the spandex clad nin to sing. Halfway through the song, which talked about tights and looking for fights in a forest, Naruto had had enough and made for the exit. Naruto saw as he left that Chouji and Shikamaru were in the process of removing the microphone from Lee's grasp. After he swiftly exited the room Naruto made his way to the restaurant portion of the building but halted when he heard a familiar voice from a nearby room. Naruto was curious what Sakura and the girls were up to and moved towards the door the voice had come from.

Ino's song just finished playing and the other kunoichi applauded at her performance. Ino went back to her chair between Tenten and Sakura and set the microphone down on the table. "So who's up next?" asked Ino. Sakura had already sung three songs, Tenten did her best on her favorite song , and Ino had just finished her fourth go. All eyes turned to the shy purpled headed girl whose eyes were downcast at her feet. Sakura moved next to Hinata and handed her the microphone.

Hinata's eyes widened in slight fear and her face began to redden. "M-me?"

"Yes, you Hinata-chan. Go on, it will be fun. Trust me."

"Besides," said Ino "you are the only one of us that has yet to have a go at it."

Tenten pulled Hinata from her chair and brought her to the song list. "Don't worry, it is just us so have fun with it." Tenten smiled at Hinata and went back to her seat. Hinata nervously browsed through the list of songs. Hinata's eyes stopped on one song near the bottom of the fourth row and input the number into the machine. Hinata turned back to look at her friends as the song began to play and she began to sing.

ienai kimochi o daita mama

kono mune ni anata michitekuru

dakedo setsunakute kurushii omoi naki dashisou

kanojo o mitsumeru sono hitomi

towa yuru ga nai ki ga suru no

demo ne, sukoshi dake . . . honno sukoshi dake kono watashi mite yo

moshi dare yori mo hayaku anata ni deatte itanara

omou mama ni negau mama ni koi o shita deshou ka

mouichido moichido

umare kawatte aeta nara

koto wa anata no

ichiban ni naritai

aeba au hodo ni tsunoru bakari

awanakya sabishi kunaru bakari

nante migatte na soshite konan na koi o shita no deshou

isso ubaeru mo no nara sou kangaeta koto mo aru

futari no kyori mou kore ijou hanashitaku nai kara . . .

okubyou mono da to

mou hitori no watashi ga iu

soredemo itsudemo

anata ga ichiban yo

moshi dare yori mo hayaku anata ni deatte itanara

omou mama ni negau mama ni koi o shita deshou ka

mouichido moichido

umare kawatte aeta nara

koto wa anata no

ichiban ni naritai

The girls cheered Hinata loudly as the song ended. "That was amazing Hinata-chan," said Sakura. Hinata blushed slightly at the compliment.

"Do you really think so?"

The kunoichi nodded their agreement with Sakura. "Hell yeah. You were amazing Hinata." All the girls turned to the voice and saw Naruto looking into the room from the small window in the door.

**'H-he saw me? He h-heard me sing…no….'** Hinata's legs grew weaker by the second and she began to move towards the floor. Ino and Tenten, knowing the effect Naruto's presence would have on the girl, dashed to Hinata's side and grabbed an arm. The two girls propped the girl up and glared at Naruto. Sakura looked back and forth between Hinata and Naruto, a cruel smile formed on her face.

"Naruto! You baka!" Sakura launched herself at the blonde boy and smashed her fist into the top of his skull that sent him face first into the floor. Sakura looked down on Naruto and continued her beating.

"Aah, Sakura, oof, what did, ouch, I do?" Ino and Tenten shook their heads in dismay as the pummeling continued. "Someday someone is going to have to just tell him you know," said Ino.

"I'm afraid you are right," agreed Tenten.

Hinata felt very comfortable for some reason. She couldn't explain it but she felt safe and secure right here. She was afraid to open her eyes and dispel this illusion of security and warmth. She increased her grip, afraid to lose this comfort. "Ha, Hinata, that's a little tight." Hinata's eyes shot open and she found herself on Naruto's back. She pushed away from Naruto's back but found he had a hold of her legs so she could not move. Naruto became unbalanced and fell forward and slammed his face into the ground.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata quickly got off of the blonde ninja's back and rolled him over. Hinata became aware of many pairs of eyes on her and found the other Konoha nin looking at the two on the ground. Naruto sat up and shook his head to clear away the haze. "I'm s-sorry Naruto-kun. I-I did n-not mean to…"

"Hey, calm down. I'm okay and it was no big deal." Naruto laughed and scratched his head, his smile made Hinata forget about her worries. Naruto stood back up and brushed his clothes off. The females rolled their eyes and went back on towards the hotel. The group walked the rest of the way to the hotel and talked about the night and plans for tomorrow. The ninja separated to their respective rooms except for Naruto who followed Hinata to her room with Tenten. Tenten unlocked the hotel room door and stepped inside so as to leave the two alone.

"I-I'm sorry Naruto-kun. You had to c-carry me back and then…"

"Ah it was no big deal. Kiba offered to carry you but it was my fault. I didn't know you had such stage fright but Sakura explained it all to me so I was only doing what was fair. Besides, you are pretty light, compared to Sakura anyway." Hinata could not suppress a small giggle at that comment. Naruto laughed too and the two enjoyed the moment of humor. "Well, good night Hinata. Got to get plenty of sleep for tomorrow."

"Hai, goodnight Naruto-kun." Hinata bowed slightly to the orange clad ninja before she entered her room and closed the door. Naruto made his way back to his room and waved to his teammate. "Night Sakura-chan."

"Naruto, wait. Please." Naruto stopped and looked back to the pink haired girl. "Can we talk for a minute?" Naruto looked at her questioningly and nodded his consent. She led him to her hotel room and they sat at the small table in the corner.

"What's wrong Sakura-chan?" Naruto was worried about his teammate, she never wanted to just talk before.

"Nothing is wrong, not really. Maybe a little. It's just that…with this tournament I keep thinking back on the chuunin exams. Then my thoughts move towards your fight with Neji and…and Sasuke's match with Gaara. Do you remember that?"

"Hard not to. That was one rough day. We nearly lost the city, but more importantly I nearly lost you and Sasuke." Naruto took hold of one of Sakura's hands and gripped it firmly. "We won though, we made it."

"I know, but now with this tournament I think back to those days and the nightmares have returned."

"Nightmares?" Naruto cocked his head to the side.

"Yes. After your last fight with Sasuke I have had them. They are not like normal nightmares. They feel too real for that and the images are just….are just…." Sakura's eyes began to water.

"Why didn't you tell someone sooner?" Naruto held her hand firmer, trying his best to let her know he was here for her.

"I did. I told Ino and she told me to tell Tsunade-sama." Sakura took a deep breathe and released it slowly. "Tsunade-sama gave me some medicine that stopped the dreams but it does not seem to work anymore and the dreams are getting worse."

"They're just dreams though. They aren't real."

"You don't understand. I see you and Sasuke fighting, but this time you don't come back. Then I see Orochimaru tear Sasuke to pieces. Again and again and again." Sakura was visibly trembling, the fear and terror of the thoughts to great for her. Naruto pulled Sakura to him, her head to his shoulder as the tears began to fall from her eyes.

"Shh…it's okay Sakura-chan. Even though Sasuke and I left on not the happiest of terms, we would never kill the other. As for Orochimaru, Sasuke would never let anything get in his way of getting revenge on his brother. Nothing at all." **'Even those he loves the most,'** thought Naruto as he cradled the terrified girl. Naruto moved Sakura to the couch in the room and sat next to her for several minutes as she approached her calm once more.

"Naruto, will you stay with me tonight. I don't feel like being alone." Naruto nodded as Sakura curled next to him and drifted to sleep. Naruto looked on his teammate with sadness in his eyes. **'Damn you Sasuke. Why did you have to go and do this to her. Bastard….'** Naruto closed his eyes and fell into a deep slumber where his nightmares and demons clashed every night.

Hinata left her room and knocked on Naruto and Kiba's door. She waited nervously and jumped as the door opened quickly. "What, forget your key?" Kiba looked at his teammate with surprise. "Oh, Hinata, I thought it was Naruto."

"He is not here?" Hinata was a little shocked that he had not returned to his room and sad that he was not here. "Do you know where he went?"

"Yeah, Sakura said she wanted to talk to him." Hinata quickly bowed to her teammate and walked to Sakura's room. She did not know what she was going to say to Naruto, she just knew she wanted to say something. As Hinata neared the door she saw that it was slightly ajar. She peaked through the small crack and gasped as she saw Naruto with Sakura curled next to him. Hinata's eyes lowered to the floor as she walked back to her room. Upon reaching her bed, Hinata fell face first onto a pillow and spilled a single tear. She fell into a fitful sleep with memories and thoughts that only deepened her depression.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please R&R. See you in the next chapter.

CHAPTER 4: First Fight, First Fright

Hope you will enjoy it. TY.


	6. Chapter 4: First Fight, First Fright

First Fight, First Fright

Naruto's nose twitched as the sweetest scent in the world drifted under his nose, a fully cooked cup o' ramen. Instantly his eyes sprang open and he* eyed his prize. Sakura giggled a little as the blonde stared hungrily at the cup. Sakura handed *him the styrofoam cup and a pair of chopsticks, as she knew full well that the boy would dive in, literally, if she didn't provide the utensils. Naruto broke the chopsticks apart and inhaled the wonderful aroma of ramen, mumbled a quick prayer of thanks, and began to eat. Sakura just shook her head and ignored the loud slurping sounds as she took a seat in a chair across from Naruto. Sakura began to eat her small meal of eggs and toast she had ordered from the hotel menu.

Naruto released a loud sigh of contentment and beamed a large smile as he finished his favorite meal. "Ah, thank you Sakura-chan. That really hit the spot." Naruto stood up, grabbed his empty ramen cup, and headed towards the kitchen trashcan.

"Hey, Naruto, thank you for last night." Naruto turned his head to look back at Sakura as she spoke to him. Suddenly Naruto felt his foot slip out from under himself and fell backwards. As he fell the blonde ninja *windmilled his arms desperately and sent his ramen cup and chopsticks flying before he landed on his back. Sakura quickly moved to Naruto's side and shook his shoulder. "Naruto! Naruto, are you okay?"

Naruto groaned and slowly sat up. Naruto looked around the area and scanned it carefully for whatever had caused him to trip. "AH HA!" exclaimed Naruto as he found the culprit. Naruto grabbed the object and held it in front of himself for inspection.

"What is that doing here?" asked Sakura as she stared at the white bar of soap in Naruto's hand. Naruto stood up and tossed the soap into the trash and quickly put the lid on top.

"I know it sounds crazy Sakura, but I swear this hotel is trying to kill me with its' soap. Everyday since we arrived I have slipped on this demon bar and nearly been killed. I have had it!" Naruto growled and began to storm off to the room's door before Sakura stopped him.

"Wait, Naruto, hold on. This hotel does not use bar soap." Naruto stopped in his tracks and turned to look back at Sakura. A moment of silence passed, then the two ninja turned to stare at the trashcan. Before the two can investigate further Ino's bedroom door opened and revealed the blonde girl in her pajamas and a dark purple robe about her. Ino yawned and stretched her arms above her head, blinked rapidly for a few seconds and focused on the two other people in the room.

"Good morning. Did we have a good night?" She let a mischievous smile cross her face as she spoke. Sakura and Naruto looked at each other and then back at Ino before stammering out a jumble of replies. Ino walked over to Sakura and took her hand in her own. "I understand now Sakura. You have finally stopped fawning over Sasuke and moved onto to Naruto." Sakura tried to interrupt the blonde girl but was silenced as Ino continued. "I guess that now Sasuke will be mine. All mine." Sakura gritted her teeth, grabbed Ino's arms and pulled her so they were face to face.

Naruto quickly took in the situation and decided to make a tactical retreat before the ensuing catfight engulfed him as well. Naruto exited the room and made his way towards his and Kiba's room, all the while the sounds of battle raged behind him. Naruto reached his hand out to grasp the door handle when suddenly it turned and the door opened. Kiba stood before him, his hair matted down and slick with water. "Have a good night did we?"

"What are you talking about?" Naruto said as he stepped past Kiba into the room. Suddenly, an odor tickled his nostrils and caused his nose to twitch. "Ugh, what smells like wet dog in here? Oh." Naruto realized his mistake as he finished speaking and turned to look at his roommate. Kiba smiled wickedly before shaking violently and sending water flying everywhere, although to Naruto it felt like it was all focused on him. After a few seconds Kiba stopped and looked at the now drenched Naruto and laughed loudly while Akamaru barked happily from his jacket shelter.

Naruto had a look of disgust on his face and frowned as Kiba and Akamaru left the room. Naruto sighed and headed for the showers and prayed he could get the stench off of him. After thirty minutes of hard scrubbing and a nice long soak in the baths Naruto was ready to face the world. After donning a dry orange jumpsuit and calling for a laundry detail for his other clothes he headed out of the room and towards the hotel lobby.

As Naruto descended to the last step he saw Hinata walk out the revolving door of the hotel. Naruto began to follow her but caught sight of Fuzzy-Eyebrows talking with Shikamaru and Chouji, so Naruto changed his course to meet his fellow Konoha nin. "Hey guys. Good morning." Shikamaru just glanced at the blonde and nodded his head slightly, Chouji gives a quick wave before ducking into the hotel dining area, and Lee turned his full attention on Naruto.

"YOSH! Good morning, Naruto. Are you ready let our youthful flame burn brighter than ever?" Naruto just stared at the green clad ninja for a second as Lee stood with his finger pointing at nothing in the distance as he spoke, the sun setting behind him. Naruto cocked his head to the side, confused, until he realized that the sunset was just a poster in the background.

"Yeah, let's burn those flames brightly and stuff. Where's Neji?" Naruto quickly changed the subject, hoping Lee would forget about whatever he and Gai talk about all the time. Naruto looked to Shikamaru in hopes that he would help him. However, Lee answered before the lazy ninja had a chance.

"Neji said he had to go shopping with Ten-Ten for some last minute items for the tournament. Strange, I was sure they picked up all they needed last night when they went out." Lee pondered this and rubbed his chin, the wheels in his head began to turn. Naruto and Shikamaru glance at each other, a silent knowing passed between the two. "I've got it! I should suggest that they make a list before they go shopping so they never forget to buy something again. I shall find them and tell them of my genius of the flames of youth!" With this last statement and fire filled eyes, Lee took off to the hotel doors and disappeared in a cloud of dust.

Naruto just shook his head and looked back at Shikamaru. "So, Shikamaru, where was Hinata off to?"

"Not sure, said she had some things to think about and left." Shikamaru glanced behind Naruto, pushed away from the wall and walks towards the hotel exit.

"Wait, Shikamaru, where are you going?" Naruto called after him.

"And where do you think you are going?" Naruto looked at the source of the voice and saw Ino and Sakura. Ino was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a short sleeved purple shirt that hinted at her mid riff. Sakura had on a pair of denim shorts with a coat wrapped around her waist and a rose colored blouse.

Chouji returned from the dining room with a plate of food but quickly turned around when he spotted Ino. "Oh no you don't. Get back here." Ino quickly grabbed Chouji's scarf and started to pull the portly ninja behind her. "Do you ever stop eating?"

Naruto laughed at team 10's antics before he turned to look back at Sakura. "You look nice, Sakura."

"Thanks. Ten-Ten helped me pick it out yesterday when we went shopping." Sakura noticed that the others had already left the building and quickly locked her elbow around Naruto's and pulled the blonde after their friends. "Come on, baka, they're leaving us behind."

Sakura and Naruto quickly caught up to Team 10 outside and the five ninja began their trip to the arena. As they walked down the road they noticed that the atmosphere was different from yesterday. There appeared to be far more people on the streets today than yesterday. The youths were surprised to see the large assortment of merchandise carts that lined the streets. Shouts from the merchants filled the air as they tried to peddle their wares on the public as they made their way to the arena.

Naruto became very surprised when he passed one vendor and saw several t-shirts with his face on them. He became more surprised when he noticed lots of people in line to purchase one.

"Oh my gosh, it's him! EEEEE!" Naruto turned around and saw a girl pointing her finger at him.

"Who? Me?" Naruto indicated himself very confused. Before Naruto realized it he was surrounded by a horde of girls and a few guys who screeched his name.

Naruto looked about himself, unsure of what to do until one of the girls asked, "Can I take a picture?"

"Uh, sure." Naruto suddenly found the girl hugging him as one of her friends quickly snapped a picture. Before Naruto could respond he was bombarded with requests for pictures and autographs. Naruto tried his best to accommodate the people but was quickly overwhelmed by them. Luckily, Sakura came to his rescue and pulled the blonde boy from the swarm of fans. She pushed the blonde ahead of her and the two took off at a run away from the insane camera wielders.

After several minutes the two slowed their pace and moved to the side of the road to rest and wait for the others from their group to catch up. "Seems like you are having quite a day already." The two looked to the source of the voice and saw Randall with a pushcart full of ramen. Naruto began to drool as the smell reached his nose and he quickly moved to Randall's side. Randall was way ahead of the blonde and presented him with a bowl. Naruto quickly thanked him before diving into the meal.

"You could say that Randall-san. I never expected a crowd as large, or insane, as this one." Sakura then looked around and saw that someone was missing. "Hey, Randall-san, where is your brother?"

"Oh, yeah. He was a little bummed about not getting into the finals so he's back at the shack. He should be out here later today to help sell ramen in the stands. Thank you for asking." Randall smiled at the pink haired girl and went to look for something in his cart. "Naruto, I was wondering if you would do something for me. Would you sign this?" Randall presented Naruto with a clipboard with several sheets of paper attached to it.

"What is it?" Naruto stared at the document. He lifted a few of the pages and saw a whole lot of technical jargon he could not understand.

"Oh, it's a simple contract that says we, The Ramen Brothers, reserve the right to use you as our official mascot. We get to say that Naruto eats our ramen. I think it would really help boost our sales. I mean, you are the bridge guy after all. You're famous around here. If you don't want to I understand."

"What do I get out of this?"

"Well, we can do one of three things. First, I could offer you a large sum of money right up front and consider the matter settled. Or I could offer you a percentage of our profits for a specified amount of time. Or I could offer you a lot of free ramen."

Naruto sat on the ground and brought his hand to his chin as he contemplated what to do. Naruto furrowed his brow and his brain began to hurt from all the thought he put into it. Sakura just shook her head sadly since she knew what Naruto would pick. Naruto nodded his head twice and then stood up and faced Randall.

"Well, Randall, it was a tough choice, but really there wasn't much of a choice involved." Randall smiled and nodded and turned back to his cart to get a bowl of ramen ready. "I'll take that percentage thing I think."

"One heaping serving of ramen coming right…what?" Randall turned to look back at the blonde ninja and then at his pink haired teammate. Sakura looked just as stunned and shocked as Randall as she looked from the blonde to Randall and back. Sakura moved to Naruto, felt his forehead and roughly examined his skull.

"Gah, Sakura, what are you doing?" Naruto cringed as she began to feel his head all over.

"I'm checking for brain damage since you don't have a fever. The Naruto I know would never pass up ramen." Sakura quickly grew frustrated since there appeared to be no injury evident on his head. Naruto pushed the girl away and rubbed his now sore head.

"I'm fine Sakura. Really. Now, Randall, I only have one thing I want to add. I want you to send all the money to Konoha."

"To Konoha? Sure, I can do that but why?"

"Well, I'm sure you know that Konoha was attacked by Orochimaru no that long ago."

"Yeah, I heard about it. It sounded really bad at the time."

"It was. Well, the village still hasn't recovered really. Many lives were lost, many of them parents of children. I want the money to go to help the orphans find new or rebuild old homes." Sakura watched the blonde as he spoke. He seemed older in that moment, a distant look in his eyes.

Randall held a new regard for the boy as he looked at him. "That is quite noble of you Naruto-san. I would be honored to fulfill your request. In fact, I will do you one better. For every bowl of Ramen we sell today, I'll be sure to send 100 ryo to the village. So, it's* in your best interest to be the best mascot there is." Randall held his hand out to the youth. "Deal?"

Naruto smiled back at Randall and grasped his hand in his firmly. "Deal. How about we seal it with a bowl of ramen?" Randall laughed and nodded before handing a bowl to Naruto. Naruto quickly went to work on the meal and finished in just a few minutes. Just as the last bit of broth was finished Team 10 finally caught up with them along with a couple of extras, namely, Neji, Tenten, and Shino. Sakura, Naruto and Randall waved to the new arrivals as they moved to join them on the road said. After a quick round of greetings the group made their way to the arena.

Along the way Naruto did his best to draw sales to his new business partner's establishment. Randall decided to try out a new technique and used an illusion technique on his ramen cart sign and placed a picture of Naruto on it eating a large bowl of ramen. As they got closer to the arena business picked up even more and Randall was forced to lag behind the group to sell his food to the customers.

The group neared the contestant's entrance and was shocked at the size of the crowd* surrounding it. One of the people around the entrance turned and saw several of the contestants. Quickly the mob turned and focused on the new arrivals. Cameras flashed and questions were being shouted all over. The Konoha ninja tried to answer all the questions but found themselves just overwhelmed. Luckily a retinue of bodyguards forced their way though the crowd and surrounded the youths. They quickly escorted the contestants to the door and moved them inside away from the paparazzi.

The boys were lead down the hall by an arena official to a plain white door some ways down. The official opened the door for the contestants and waved them inside. As the group walked through the door they were surprised to see most of the other participants already there. Then they realized just how large the room was. The room was large and had a boxing ring off to the right with several sets of weights nearby. To the left was a juice bar and a bookshelf full of a variety of reading material. In front of them, hanging on the wall, was a large flat screen TV with the pre-contest show. Naruto and Chouji heard the door click shut behind them. Naruto and Chouji went to watch the pre-tournament show on the TV while they waited for the rest of the contestants to arrive.

Shino watched quietly as his friends walked to the couch set several feet from the TV. On the couch sat another one of the contestants, Jin. Jin was a young man, Shino noted. He had short brown hair that stuck out from the bandana he wore over his head. He wore a simple pair of red trousers, a blue v-neck long sleeved shirt with the sleeves ending halfway between his wrist and elbow. A pair of crescent moon specs sat on the bridge of his nose as he watched the TV and laughed at one of the announcer's lame jokes. Not particularly muscular, but toned. Shino made note not to underestimate the man's strength if he should ever come to fight the man.

Shino looked to his left and saw Lee off in one corner of the room doing one handed push up while Kiba and Akamaru sat on his back.

Next Shino's gaze drifted towards the boxing ring where Hiro Tsubara and Kazuama Shingami sparred with one another. The two traded light blows, not meant to cause pain but to show weakness in styles.

Hiro was a large man, nearly 6'5" with a tan complexion. He wore a plain white shirt that barely fit over his large belly and his hair was tied in a ponytail at the top of his head that fell down to his neck. He had a pair of baggy peasant pants tied with a piece of rope and bare feet. His movements were slow but not as slow as Shino would have originally expected for someone of his size. He took more touches from Kazuama, but the few he got in looked like they could channel a lot of power if he desired so.

Kazuama was smaller, merely 5'7" in height. He wore a mud brown shirt that clung tightly to his small frame and a pair of purple pants that flared out at the ankles. He wore a pair of long gloves that ended halfway between his elbow and wrist and a bandana wrapped around each arm. He moved quickly, dodging most of Hiro's strikes and delivering several quick attacks.

Just outside of the small ring that Kazuama and Hiro filled was wrack full of weights were Kanaho Tenshi sat, working hard at the free weights. He was roughly 5'10" and looked very muscular. He wore a sleeveless t-shirt and tight black pants. His skin was tanned, likely from the large amount of sun he got, if his lifeguard necklace was accurate.

Shino's gaze moved again and settled on Bob. Bob was the oddest looking person in the room. He stood stock straight in his three piece suit. He seemed old with his white hair* that was perfectly kept and a thing white mustache on his lips. He looked more like a butler than a combatant. His white gloves held a glass of red wine that he sipped at every once in awhile, his gaze out and studying the other fighters.

Next, Shino turned to gauge Paco Hoto. Paco was an ordinary looking man in his twenties. He had dirty blonde hair and wore a bamboo hat on his head. He sat against a wall away from all the other and seemed to be sleeping. His shirt was a plain white cloth shirt and some odd pants made of tough glue cloth (jeans) and had on a pair of black boots that went up halfway to his knee.

Shino next spied on Tsurichiro Hanabishi. Tsurichiro was a wiry rat faced man who seemed to twitch every so often as his eyes darted around as though he was about to be attacked. His black shirt hung loosely on his thin frame with several tears in it. His light brown pants showed years of wear and with the left leg from the knee down missing. He locked eyes with Shino for a second and curled himself up tighter in the corner he huddled in. Shino decided to move on before the bore man suffered a heart attack.

Shino's gaze landed on the last three contestants in the room, Tenten, Nami Yue, and Sasuke Ryoko. The three occupied the area of the juice bar, with Tenten and Nami sitting next to each other on stools and Sasuke attempting to talk with Nami. Sasuke had on a blue shirt, white shorts, a blue headband and a pair of blue sandals. His head is covered with light blue hair that he keeps slicked back and his purple eyes are firmly locked on Nami. His skin is dark, almost ebony in color. Shino sees the man break into a laugh that he only enjoys before Nami dismisses him with a wave of her hand. Sasuke sneers at her and walks away and glares at Shino as he passes by.

Shino's attention turned back to Nami. She was young, about fifteen to seventeen years old. She was a slightly tall girl with long dark green hair that reached to the middle of her back, it fell straight till about halfway down where it began to curl slightly. She wore a long blue skirt that covered her legs to her ankles and on her feet were a pair of flat brown leather sandals. A black blouse with short sleeves adorned her top and a pair of black gloves that reached almost to her elbows. Shino made several mental notes about this strange girl. He noticed Tenten wave at him and indicate that she wanted him to join them. Shino mentally sighed and made his way to the ladies where he took a seat on a bar stool next to Nami.

Tenten smiled as she introduced the two. "Nami, this is Shino*. He's quiet and a little weird, but he's a nice guy."

"He's not quiet. I just bet no one has bothered to help break him out of his shell." Tenten snickered at the word shell. Nami turned away from Shino and then leaned back until her head rested in his lap. This caused Shino's eyebrows to appear above his glasses for a brief second, his surprise evident.

Shino looked to Tenten, unsure of what to do in this situation. Tenten just shook her head, letting him know he was on his own. "Excuse me, but your head is in my lap."

"Is it? I'm sorry, would you like me to move it?" Nami asked as she looked up at him innocently.

"If you would…" Shino's voice remained calm as he made a strong effort to keep it so.

"Oh very well." Nami shimmied her way up Shino until her head rested on his shoulder as she scooted their chairs closer. "Is this better, cutie?" If someone had been watching Shino's face very closely they would have detected the faintest hint of red edge out from his glasses. Shino placed his hands on Nami's shoulders and gently eased her back to a sitting position before standing from his seat.

"I think I will check on how Naruto is doing. Tenten, Nami." Shino calmly walked away from the two girls.

"Was it something I said?" Nami looked to tenten as the ever stoic ninja Shino walked away. Tenten couldn't stop laughing at the spectacle.

As Shino neared the couch he saw Naruto and Jin laughing at some of the pre show hijinks on the TV. Chouji it seems had found the snack bar that was laid out to the side and had taken his fair share of the treats. Before Shino could speak a loud screech filled the room as the large door at the end of the room opened. All eyes turned to see Tazuna and a trio of event staffers. Tazuna and the staffers moved to stand in front of the TV. Jin hit the mute button on the remote so Tazuna could speak.

"If I could have everyone move in closer, I want everyone to hear this. He waited for the fighters to gather round again and quickly counted them to makes sure everyone one was here. After he finished counting he stopped and had a confused look on his face. The fighters watched as he pointed and counted the fighters mentally again. After coing to the same conclusion a second time he sighed. "Has anyone seen Hyouuryusha?" The fighters shook their heads as they looked at each other. "I hate to disqualify but the crowds getting restless. Okay, that still leaves us with…" Tazuna stopped to count the contestants one more time. "Sixteen contestants…wait."

All eyes turned to see what had caught Tazuna's attention. A slightly tall man stood just behind Kazuama. He wore a black cloak with the head pulled over his head, deep blue pants and shirt, and a pair of black boots. His face was hidden behind a dull gray ceramic mask that hid his face completely and a pair of fingerless black gloves.

Kazuama looked the man up and down. "Where the hell did you come from?" Hyouuryusha merely stared at Kazuama until Tazuna cleared his throat and brought the attention back to himself.

"Well, lets continue. There will be eight matches, one on one. The winner of those matches will proceed to the next round tomorrow. Our first match of the day is," Tazuna looks down at a small clipboard that one of the staff handed to him, "Shino Aburame and Nami Yue. If you two would step forward please."

Shino and Nami stepped away from the other contestants and looked at each other. Nami smiled at Shino as he looked her way while Shino remained as impassive as ever. "If you would follow me please, Mr Aburame." One of the staffers called. Shino followed the man as the staffer led him through a set of doors near the corner. A string of lights trailed the middle of the ceiling in the corridor. Shino and the staffer followed the hallway till it branched left and right. The staffer pointed Shino to the right hallway. Shino followed the hallway until it turned left. The hallway turned left once more leading to a stairwell leading up to the arena floor. Shino ascended the stairs and was met by a wave of cheers. He looked back and up to see his friends in the stands right above him. He cocked an eyebrow as he noticed his teammate, Hinata Hyuuga, was not present. He was slightly disappointed but decided to move on. As he neared the steps up to the raised ring a bell chimed and the crowd grew quiet.

"Ladies and gentlemen!!! It is my honor to announce the commencement of the First Annual Wave Country Championship. Leading us into our first match of the day, in the red square, one of several Konoha nin in our tournament, the quiet, the deadly, Shino Aburame!" Several cameras flashed and cheers echoed in the arena. The announcer wait a minute for the crowd to settle down. "Next, in the blue square, a new comer to wave country. She's cute, she's hot, and she can kick your ass. Miss Nami Yue!" More cameras flashed and cheers poured forth from the crowd as Nami ascended the stairs on her side of the ring. She smiled and waved to the people in the crowd, going so far as to strike several poses for the cameras. The announcer was silent for several minutes as the crowd began to return to normal.

"Now, before we begin with the festivities, I must read the rules. First and foremost, do not kill your opponent. If your opponent expires you disqualified and removed from this and any future tournaments in Wave Country. Second, there are to be no pointed weapons. While blunt objects are just as able to kill a person, they are far less likely for an accident to occur. Third, if the contest touches any area outside of the ring, they are disqualified and lose the round. Four, if a person if rendered unable to stand for the count of ten, they lose the match. Our last and final rule is one of the most important. Do not endanger the audience. Participants are forbidden to use any techniques that would harm the audience. If it appears that a technique is getting out of control one warning will be given before the contestant in disqualified and rendered harmless. Everybody understand the rules? Excellent. Let's get this event on the road. Contestants, face each other. Get ready….GO!"

Nami's feet became a blur as she shot out of her starting square at Shino. Shino quickly threw his arms in front of his face, blocking a high kick meant for his head. Nami quickly brought her foot back down, repositioning her feet to begin a barrage of strikes with her fists. Shino's arms moved quickly as he deflected her attacks. Several times Nami felt Shino attempt to grab her arm but she easily broke out of his grip. Suddenly Nami dropped to the ground and swept her left leg out, tripping Shino onto his back.

Shino quickly rolled as Nami's foot crashed into the ground where his head had been half a second before. As Shino rolled he felt Nami's foot connect several times before he reached into one of his jacket pockets. Nami fell backwards as she dodged the Kunai he had thrown at her. Shino quickly moved back to standing as Nami stared at him. "Hey, he said no pointed weapons." Nami flipped back to a standing position as Shino adjust his glasses.

"It isn't." Shino reached into hi pocket, pulled out a second kunai, and held it up to the light. "I had the points removed and the edges blunted. I had them prepared last night in preparation for today. I see that my effort was not wasted. Shino looked to Nami and was surprised at the expression on he face. No sign of anger or annoyance lay on her face, only that smile.

"A cutie I knew you were, but a smarty too. I knew there was something I liked about you. She winked at Shino as she reached to her side pouch and pulled out a small metal rod only 5 inches long. The rod had two studs on it, one of which Nami pressed. The rod extended to five feet in length. Nami gave the rod a practiced twirl over her head and around her body before jabbing the end into the arena floor, cracking part of the cement. Shino cocked an eyebrow and brought the kunai up into a defensive postion.

Nami charged at Shino, the staff held in front of her and slightly to the right. Nami brought the stick across at towards Shino's head, forcing the boy to drop bend forward below the strike. Quickly Nami slid her lower hand up the stick, bringing her left foot forward and brought the rear end of the stick forward in an upper strike. Shino rolled to his left narrowly dodging Nami's second strike. Shino rose as he rolled and delivered a powerful backhand attack to Nami' chest before being sent stumbling forward from a powerful strike to his upper back from the return of Nami's staff. After her second strike missed Nami spun to her right and brought the staff down onto Shino's back, sending the boy stumbling forward.

Shino spun around after putting some distance between himself and Nami. Shino held the Kunai in his left hand, his left foot forward, his body turned so that only one side showed to Nami. Nami readjusted her grip on the staff, giving it a small twirl as she stepped slowly to Shino's side. Shino adjusted his footing, making sure to keep Nami directing in front of him. Nami gave the staff one more spin before charging at Shino once more. She lead with a quick side swipe towards Shino's head which the boy blocked with his kunai. Nami brought the staff into a small loop over the ninja's head aiming for the other side of head. Shino barely moved fast enough to intercept the blow but found it was weak, a faint. Before Shino could remedy his mistake Nami brought the staff back over his head and down low, aimed for his knee. Shino quickly lifted his leg over the staff and jumped backwards as Nami reversed the strike and brought it up, aiming for his mid section. Nami swiped only air as Shino continued to backpedal.

Shino reached into his coat and withdrew another Kunai, this one held in his right hand. Nami smirked at Shino as she readied her staff, putting her hands several inches from center, and waited. "Your turn cutie." Shino took a half step forward and watched as Nami readied her defense. Nami watched as Shino began to run towards her launching a Kunai to her body. Nami brought the lower end of the staff up and to the left, sending the kunai flying. She quickly brought the staff into a downward right strike, deflecting the second kunai thrown by the boy. Nami swung the staff back to her left, attempting to his Shino as he charged in, but the boy ducked her strike and delivered a fist to her stomach.

Nami winced from the strike but brought the pole behind the boys back and rolled backwards with Shino along for the ride. Shino suddenly found himself on his back, Nami on top of him, the staff resting painfully under his back. Shino grasped at nami's outfit, trying to find a way to free himself from her, but to no avail. Nami just smiled at his attempt before brining her face near Shino's and whipering, "Do you give up yet?" Shino lowered his head to the ground, took a quick breathe and slammed his head forward into Nami's head, forcing the girl to let go of her staff and roll off the boy. Shino wasted no time in escaping. Shino quickly grabbed the staff from the ground and hurled it off the side of the platform, preventing Nami from using it again.

"Hey, that was mine!" Shino looked back at Nami and saw her looking very annoyed. "No more games." Nami took a deep breath and held it for several seconds before letting it out slowly. "You've given me quite a workout. I'm getting tired already. But I'm not done yet." Nami calmly walked towards Shino, her hands at her sides. Her walk was completely relaxed as she neared the boy. Shino blinked and suddenly Nami was gone. Shino quickly leapt to his left, narrowly dodging the strike from Nami as she fell from the sky.

Shino stood and turned to face Nami but found himself immediately busy dodging as a flurry of punches came his way. Shino's arms became a blur as he blocked and deflected most of the attacks, but several slipped through, striking his stomach, face, and one managed to clip his temple. Slightly dazed Shino grabbed one of Nami's fists in he palm and held tight. Nami swung with her other fist and Shino similarly grasped it. Shino held her fist for several seconds, each attempting to overpower the other. Suddenly Nami dropped all resistance in her arms, causing Shino to move forward. Nami met his head with hers, causing stars to appear in both participants eyes for a second.

Shino recovered first and launched a quick kick towards Nami. Nami grabbed his leg and pulled then suddenly pushed on the leg. Shino lost his footing and found himself being spun by Nami. Nami continued to spin for several seconds before releasing her hold on Shino's leg, sending him flying. Shino hit the ground hard, skidding for several feet, stopping close to the edge of the arena. Nami, breathing hard, moved to her opponent. Shino propped himself up on an elbow and withdrew a small object from his jacket and hurled it to the ground between him and Nami. A cloud of smoke quickly formed between the two before engulfing them in its reaches. Nami coughed as the stung her lungs slightly but moved on. She squinted her eyes to see through the dusty haze until she saw a shadow that looked like Shino. He didn't appear to have seen her yet. Nami knew that she had to make this one count as she leapt towards her target and put all the power she could into this last shot.

Her cry of victory became a scream of terror as she saw her arm penetrate the boy and felt it come out the other side. Her scream filled the arena, she never wanted to kill the boy. Suddenly the shape seemed start dissolving then began to converge on her arm. She began to shake her arm furiously in order to dislodge whatever it was that was crawling up her arm. The dust finally began to settle and she saw the boy standing off to the side, staring at her. She looked back to her arm and noticed that it was covered in some sort of insects. "What did you do to me?"

"My family is specialized in using the Kikai bugs. They feed on the chakra that flows through everything. They are my allies and helped me achieve my victory over you." Nami's mind flashed back to the very beginning of the fight, when Shino attempted to grab her but his hold was far too weak. '_He wasn't trying to hold me, he was planting his bugs on me!'_ Awareness flashed in her eyes causing Shino to remark, "One should never reveal their trump card too early."

Nami looked into Shino's eyes and smiled. She ignored the bugs on her arm and instead stood tall and straight before slamming her fist into the ground, causing the bugs on her arm to be shaken loose and fall to the ground. Nami launched herself quickly at Shino and unleashed a last desperate barrage of attacks aimed for his head. Shino was worried when he saw the blood on her hand and knew that if she pushed too hard the chakra exhaustion would end poorly for her. Nami kept up the work, moving in more and more, forcing Shino to back step until his feet were at the edge of the arena. Nami suddenly leapt at Shino, attempting to tackle him and take him off the side. Shino took on step back and off the arena. Nami's mouth widened in shock as she sailed over Shino, too shocked to believe he would step off of his own volition. As she flew past the boy she noticed him sticking to the side of the raised arena with just his feet. Nami swore as she fell tot eh ground, landing roughly on her shoulder before laying out on her back. She stared up into the glasses of the boy ninja as he looked down at her from the arena's sidewall.

"And there we have it people. Shino Aburame defeats Nami Yue through a ring out. Let's hear it for Shino!" The crowd erupted with applause and camera flashes as the boy walked down the sidewall and knelt down next to Nami. She raised her hand weakly towards him and Shino grasped it.

"That was a fun match, wasn't it cutie?" Nami smiled at Shino as she spoke.

"It was enjoyable. I look forward to another sometime."

"Anytime for you, Shino-kun." The medics arrived with a stretcher. Shino held her hand as they loaded her onto the stretcher and released his hold as they moved away. Shino nodded to himself before walking back to the stairs to the contestant's lounge. As Shino pushed open the door leading into the room he was met with several cheers from his friend. Shino accepted their praise kindly and moved over to the juice bar and poured himself a drink.

_**Woo, long time coming, but it is finally done. I hope some of you remember this when I started it over two years ago. After my car wreck years ago I lost all the story I had written and lost all motivation to keep writing. Until recently when two more people reviewed my story. I want to thank them for that, it gave me the motivation to continue. I will be trying my best to finally finish this story. Thanks for reading and please review if you feel it was worth it.**_


	7. Chapter 4: The Winds of Change

Chapter 4.5

The Winds of Change

"What a day it's been right Tom?"

"You know it Chet, and it isn't even halfway over yet. Our next match pits fan favorite Naruto Uzumaki vs Kazuama Shingami, the son of the Traveling Monk Toshiro."

"But before we get to the next match let's have a quick recap of our first three rounds. Round One placed Konoha Nin Shino Aburame versus the lovely Nami Yue. Nami led the fight with an aggressive display of hand to hand and stick combat. However, right at the end Shino outsmarted his opponent, sending Nami leaping out of bounds and netting Shino the victory."

"Our second round put Tsurichiro Hanabishi against Kanaho Tenshi. Kanaho was favored to win nearly one hundred to one odds but wound up on the floor from a lucky kick delivered by Tsurichiro as he attempted to run away. Who ever had the guts to place any money on Tsurichiro I am sure is making out like a bandit now.

"Finally, the third round found Hyouuryusha in battle against Hiro Tsubaru. What a stunning display of martial ability and technique as these two fought ferociously left the crowd dazzled. By the end both contestants were reduced to straight hand to hand combat and the audiences breath was held as these to slugged their way to victory. But Hyouuryusha slipped a strong kick to Hiro's gut followed by a strong uppercut gaining Hyouuryusha victory."

Naruto turned away from the TV and looked back at Jin. Jin just shook his head, a smile still on his face and reached down to his side, untying a small pouch. He tossed the pouch to Naruto who caught it and peered inside. "Marbles?" Naruto looked quizzically at Jin.

"You won them fair in square. I never should have bet on Hiro."

Naruto laughed as he tied the pouch to his side. "Always bet on the underdog." Jin laughed with the blonde as he got up and went to get a drink. Naruto returned his attention to the TV until he felt a pair of hands on his shoulders. He turned his head around and saw Tazuna looking at him.

"I'm really rooting for you out there Naruto. I think the whole damn town is actually. Don't go underestimating your opponents though. Some of these people have real talent."

"Don't worry about me Tazuna," Naruto said as he stood up and gave the old man a thumbs up, "I'm not going to lose." Tazuna smiled at the boy and laughed at his confident nature.

"Good to hear Naruto. You're up next, if you would follow Carol to your starting square we can begin." Naruto nodded and followed the female staffer indicated by Tazuna. Naruto followed the same path Shino had previously walked until he came to the red squares entrance. As he neared the stairs Carol put her hand on his shoulder.

"Hold on one second please. They need to announce you properly." Naruto cocked his head at Carol but waited for the sound of the announcer.

"Ladies and gentlemen. I ask you to put your hands together for our next two contestants. First, in the red square, you know, you love, you use his bridge, the one and only NARUTO UZUMAKI!!!" The crowd roar was almost deafening as Naruto leapt up the stairs into the light of the arena. Naruto ran around the outside of the ring as pictures flashed and his fans waved. After one circuit Naruto ran up the stairs to his starting square and quickly made a set of clones. The clones leapt from the arena and into the audiences seating area. The clones went around shaking hands, high fiving, and posing for pictures. After a minute Naruto dismissed his clones and allowed the crowd to finally calm down.

The announcer cleared his throat and continued, "And in the blue square, the son of the Traveling Monk Toshiro, The Speed Demon, The Wind Runner, Kazuama Shingami." The crowd cheered as Kazuama ascended the stairs, waving to the people in the crowd before coming to a stop in his starting square.

Kazuama lowered his hand and looked to Naruto who met his gaze. Kazuama placed both hands to his sides and bowed to Naruto, keeping his eyes on his opponent. Naruto returned the bow to Kazuama before the announcer spoke once more. "Now, do both the contestants remember the rules?" Naruto and Kazuama nodded. "Excellent. Naruto, are you ready?"

"Ready!" Naruto shouted and assumed his fighting stance.

"Kazuama, are you ready?" Kazuama merely nodded and readied his stance. "OK, BEGIN!"

Naruto and Kazuama immediately rushed towards each other and became a blur of kicks and punches. Naruto delivered a punch to Kazuama's cheek, but received a knee to his stomach in return. This exchange of blows continued for about a minute until the two contestants leapt away from each other. The two boys looked roughed up, but none showed any signs of having really been injured in the least.

"The Speed Demon huh? If all my enemies punched as slow as you I'd never have to worry about getting hit."

Kazuama bristled at the comment. "Oh really?"

"Yeah, even Konohamaru moves faster than you." Naruto suddenly felt a fist jammed into his torso as Kazuama crossed the distance between the two in the blink of an eye.

"Wind technique: Air Blast." Naruto found himself suddenly flying through the air as a huge burst of wind erupted from Kazuama's fist. Naruto landed on his head and skidded several feet before coming to a stop.

"What the hell was that?" Naruto asked as he quickly regained his feet. Naruto looked at Kazuama and saw the boy's hair blowing in a gentle breeze that had suddenly appeared.

"I am Kazuama Shingami, the speed demon. But, as the announcer said, I have a second name, The Wind Runner. My chakra's element is aligned to that of wind. I have spent the last years of my life learning to control it. You are lucky, if I were allowed to bring my full power to bear you would be killed in an instant. No power is greater than wind. It is the ultimate combat element and I will be the ultimate wind master." Naruto watched as the wind picked up in intensity for a fraction of a second as Kazuama rushed towards Naruto. Naruto barely had enough to raise his hands to block the punch aimed for his face. Naruto felt Kazuama run just past his left before feeling Kazuama's elbow jabbed into his back followed by a kick to his rear. Naruto turned to face his attacker but found Kazuama standing on the edge of the arena, several meters away.

"Grr, you're starting to piss me off." Naruto formed the sign of the Ram and created a set of six clones. "Let's get him!" All seven of the Narutos charged at Kazuama.

Kazuama tapped his toe against the ground once and bared his teeth. Naruto felt the breeze again as Kazuama ran directly for one of the Narutos and smashed his fist into the clones face and continued to run through the smoke of the clone's disintegration. Kazuama slammed his foot into the ground and pivoted on the heel of his foot before coming to a stop facing the backs of the Narutos.

"Wind technique: Air Blast times two." Naruto turned around just in time to be swept up in the blast of air along with two of his clones. This time the air carried Naruto much farther, taking him clear past the edge of the arena. Naruto looked behind him and saw the faces of several audience members getting larger, causing him to panic slightly. The two clones accompanying Naruto reacted quickly, grabbing his clothes and throwing him back to the arena before crashing into now vacated seats and disappearing.

Naruto landed roughly back in the ring just as the last of his clones were dispatched by several well-placed hits from Kazuama. Naruto stood up but found himself under assault immediately. Kazuama smashed his fist into Naruto's face, delivered a knee to his stomach, and then slammed his elbow into the back of the blonde's head. Naruto gritted his teeth and reached out his hand, grabbing a part of Kazuama's shirt. Naruto pulled the shirt down and brought his head up, slamming into the boys chin, smashing Kazuama's teeth together. Kazuama stumbled backwards, semi dazed from the blow. Naruto quickly performed the Shadow Clone Technique and made a set of clones. The clones rapidly advanced on Kazuama and leapt upon the boy. Kazuama yelped as the Naruto clones piled onto him. After a minute Naruto called his clones off but discovered that Kazuama had disappeared.

Naruto and his clones began to search frantically for Kazuama but none could figure out where he was. One clone ran up to Naruto and pointed to the side, drawing Naruto's attention to that direction. The next thing Naruto knew he was down on the ground after receiving a strong blow to his temple, forcing him to see stars. As Naruto looked up he saw his clone laughing at him before disappearing in a puff of smoke revealing Kazuama.

"Give it up Naruto. You and your pathetic clones can never hope to defeat me."

"I'll never give up. The Hokage would never give up and neither will I" Kazuama scoffed at the boy and zoomed past Naruto and his clones, striking two of the clones into none existence as he went. Kazuama halted his charge, turned around and sped again towards more of Naruto's clones, eliminating them in his pass. Suddenly Naruto saw the flaw to Kazuama's technique.

Naruto carefully watched as Kazuama sped towards the remainder of clones, easily punching and kicking them into nothingness. Kazuama turned to face Naruto, his teeth bared in a wicked smile as he began his charge to Naruto. Naruto quickly stepped to his left, narrowly dodging Kazuama's strike. Kazuama stopped, quickly spun and rushed the blonde again. Naruto jumped right, again evading the attack made by Kazuama.

Kazuama growled as he turned around to stare at the blonde. "Stand still you pest."

"What's the matter Kazuama? Can't touch me?"

"I won't miss again. You just got lucky."

"Bring it on Kazuama. I've figured out the trick to your little technique."

"RAAAHHH" Kazuama screamed as he ran full speed at Naruto, frustration evident as the blonde leapt out of range again. Kazuama braked, turned and rushed again, but found that Naruto had once again leapt out of his path.

"It's a good technique Kazuama, but you can only run forward, no way to adjust your aim." Kazuama ignored the boy and continued to stop, turn, and rush the blonde, his frustration mounting higher as the blonde continued to mock him with every miss.

"Nyeh, Nyeh, can't touch me. You can't get me."

"SHUT UP!!" Kazuama yelled and Naruto felt the air ripple around the arena. He felt the wind begin to pull in towards Kazuama. Kazuama's hands became a blur of motion when suddenly he shouted, "Wind Technique: Hurricane Hammer." Naruto watched as the wind seemed to coalesce into a shape roughly like that of a mallet. Kazuama lifted the "hammer" up and slammed it into the ground, Naruto barely dodging the strike. The ground cracked into multiple pieces beneath the effect of the hammer causing chunks of the arena floor to fly up. Naruto began to run at Kazuama but found himself propelled to the side as the hammer exploded into a powerful burst of wind, sending the boy tumbling and sliding on the ground.

Naruto reached into his pouch and pulled out a kunai, digging it into the ground until it caught in a small crack, holding the boy in place as the wind continued to blow. After several seconds the wind finally died, leaving the arena littered with dust and rocks from the attack. Naruto began to stand when he heard Kazuama call his next attack, "Wind Technique: Debris Vacuum."

Naruto felt the wind begin to draw in on Kazuama, getting stronger and stronger, picking up the little rocks and pebbles formed by the Hurricane Hammer. As the wind continued to pick up larger pieces of the arena floor cracked loose and were pulled towards the large pile now centered around Kazuama. Naruto struggled to stay upright as the wind pulled at him, forcing him to kneel or be drawn in also.

The winds died down and an odd moment of silence echoed in the stadium before Kazuama called out, "Wind Technique: Debris Cannon." Suddenly the wall of rock and dirt burst from around Kazuama flying straight for Naruto. Naruto tried to shield his head as several of the larger rocks flew straight for his head. He could hear and feel the power behind the attack as the rocks gouged into his clothes, tearing his orange jumpsuit in several pieces and scraping the skin on his exposed flesh. Naruto moved his arm to the side to try and get a view of Kazuama just as the largest rock yet struck his face right between his eyes. Naruto crumpled to the ground, the blowing sending him into a daze as stars danced in front of his face.

Naruto fell to the ground and the audience gasped as they saw their hero fall down. In the back of Naruto's mind he could hear the crowd shouting for him to get back up and the count of the announcer. "5…6…7…" The crowd's volume increased as the count got closer and closer to ten. Suddenly a voice cut through the din of the crowd.

"NARUTO-KUN, YOUR RAMEN IS READY!!" Naruto automatically sat up and looked around the arena. The crowd cheered as Naruto unsteadily regained his feet.

"Damn it, just stay down." Kazuama fumed, his breath coming in deep gasps. Naruto looked his way and Kazuama could see the glaze in his eyes slipping away each second.

"Hehe, is that the best you got?"

"What?"

"I've felt a stronger wind when Iruka-sensei yells at me."

Kazuama's face contorted with rage at Naruto's jibe. "Debris Vacuum." Kazuama began to collect the rocks, pebbles and dust about himself once more, the wind even stronger it seemed to Naruto. Naruto knelt down and pulled several pieces of paper out from his pouch and allowed them to be sucked up by the technique until they became buried underneath and between the rocks.

"Debris Cann----" A large explosion erupted from the pile of rocks as Naruto's explosive tags sent the rocks flying in all direction. Naruto quickly dove to the ground and avoided most of the rocks with only a few strays landing on him. Dust filled the arena. As Naruto stood back up to survey the damage he heard the sound of something ripping followed by the sound of many small glass balls clattered to the ground. Naruto looked down as saw that the bag of marbles he had received from Jin had torn and were now scattered on the ground around him.

"NARUTO!" Naruto looked up in time to see Kazuama charging in, his fist aimed at his head when suddenly Kazuama disappeared. Naruto looked up and saw Kazuama up in the air, sent aloft by stepping on the marbles on the ground. He watched as Kazuama landed roughly on his back, the back of his head slamming into the arena floor.

Naruto leapt to Kazuama's side and checked to see if the boy was still alive. He watched as Kazuama's chest continued to expand and shrink, his lungs still working. Soon the final count of from the announcer echoed from the speakers. "…and ten. The match is over with Naruto Uzumaki as the victor." The crowd cheered wildly but Naruto stayed knelt next to Kazuama until the medics arrive with a stretcher and carried the boy off.

Naruto stood straight and tall and smiled and waved to the crowd as he began to walk back to his exit. The next thing Naruto knew he was on his back staring at the sky. He groaned as he sat up and looked around himself. '_Doh, I forgot to pick up the marbles.'_ Naruto formed a set of clones and sent them to gathering the marbles from the floor, he didn't want to lose them now. Naruto left his clones to their chore and leapt up into the stands and landed next to his friends. Shikamaru just smiled at the blonde and Neji nodded at him.

"Way to go Naruto. I'm proud of you." Sakura patted him on the back and smiled at the blonde.

"Thanks Sakura-chan. I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't shouted about the ramen."

"Actaully, that wasn't me."

"Nani?"

"It was actually Hinata. Seems she knows you just about as well as I do, hehe." Naruto turned to regard the quiet purple haired girl sitting near him.

Hinata's gaze was cast towards the ground, her fingers pressing against each other as the blonde turned to regard her. "I-it was really n-nothing, Naruto-kun. Everyone knows h-how much you love your r-ramen."

"Yeah, but you are the one that yelled it out and got me back up. Thanks Hinata." Naruto turned around as one of his clones returned with the marbles now in a new sacks. Naruto took the sack from his clone and handed the bag of marbles to her. "Here, these saved my butt, and so did you. Their yours."

Hinata looked from the bag to Naruto and back to the bag and tentatively took it from his hand. "Th-thank you Naruto-kun." Naruto pulled the bag close to her chest and held it tight. '_My first gift from Naruto.'_

"Excuse, Uzumaki-san, but your presence is requested in the participants lounge."

"Well, looks like I have to go. I'll see you after the rest of the matches are done. Bye." Naruto smiled and waved as he left his friends, Hinata shyly waving back. Naruto leapt down from the stands and headed down the stairs and back to the fighters area. As soon as Naruto opened the door his friends were there to greet him. Lee immediately went into a speech about Naruto's flames of youth that Naruto merely nodded along with.

"Naruto, could I speak with you for a moment?" Tazuna called out from the free weights area, away from any of the other contestants. Naruto disengaged himself from his friends and joined Tazuna sitting on the bench.

"What do you need Tazuna?"

"I just want to congratulate you, my boy. You fault splendidly. You also gave us a few more things to think about in our restrictions next year. Explosive tags? Really?"

"Well, I knew he wouldn't get seriously hurt by them, they were the small charge. I just wanted to disrupt his technique and stun him a bit."

"Haha, I'm not faulting you for it. It was a brilliant plan and it worked. I'm proud of you. The whole town is really hoping to see you win. Already we have seen several contestants we would like to talk to about starting our own hidden village. That Nami girl seemed to have real potential, Kazuama as well if he could control his temper."

"I'm glad your plan is working out. Hopefully you will find some more people. When is the next round anyway?"

"Well, you and Kazuama did a number on the ring. We are taking an hour break to repair it, then back to business."

"Great, is it OK if I leave for a little bit then?"

"I don't see why not, but where do you want to go?"

"Well, you see, I really need a cup of Ramen. Ever since Hinata shouted out that there was one ready my stomach has been growling for it." Tazuna laughed and dismissed the boy after patting his shoulder.

"Remember Naruto, one hour. Don't be late. Your friends will welcome your support I am sure."

"I won't be late Tazuna. Bye!" Naruto quickly burst through the exit and began his search for a hot bowl of ramen.

_**And so end the second half of the fourth Chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as my editor did. Please R&R. I hoep to have the next chapter up in about 2-3 weeks, then it will be hopefully, if my time table is right, about a month for the one after that. Thank you and good night.**_


	8. Chapter 4: There's Always Hope

Chapter 4" Continued: There's Always Hope

The morning of the tournaments first day.

Hinata awoke as the alarm next to the bed screeched. She lay face down on her tear-streaked pillow and reached her arm out, shutting the alarm off. She continued to lay face down in her bed for several minutes deciding whether she should even bother to get up ever again. A loud knock came from her bedroom door followed by Tenten's voice. "Hinata! Get up, we don't want to be late."

Hinata groaned and slid out of the bed, dragging her feet along the ground. She grabbed a towel from the dresser and headed for the shower. She turned the knob on the shower to a semi warm setting and disrobed before stepping under the water spray. As the water blasted against her skin her mind kept drifting back to last night and the image of Naruto and Sakura together on the couch.

Hinata squinted her eyes tightly and shook her head, dispersing the gathering water. She shut the water off, dried off and changed into her classic outfit. She slipped on a pair of sandals and left her hotel room. She almost glanced back at Sakura's room but refused to, intent on ignoring the sudden commotion coming from inside. Hinata slowly descended the stairs leading to the hotel lobby, using the handrail to help hold her up.

As she made that last step down the stairs she looked over to the dining area and saw another buffet style breakfast laid out. She moved slowly into dinging room and walked around the buffet, seeing if anything would catch her interest. After several walks around she found that she really wasn't that hungry and walked out of the room. On the way out she found Shikamaru, Chouji, and Lee waiting outside the dining room.

"Good morning Hinata-san. Would you care to join us for breakfast?" Lee asked Hinata.

"I'm sorry Lee-kun. I've got some things I need to think about. Thank you though." Hinata gave a small bow and left the three there. She walked out the hotel doors and became engulfed in the crowd of people filling the street. She walked against the flow of the crowd until she reached the nearly barren beach. Gray clouds filled the horizon far off in the water as the waves rolled in higher than they had the other day.

She walked down the beach, her foot occasionally sinking in the sand, reaching above her sandal and feeling cool against her toes. She saw something move at the edge of her peripheral vision and turned to see what had caught her attention. She saw the ramen shack that Randall and Remington ran, Remington waving to the girl. She gave a small, halfhearted wave and continued on her way. After several minutes she reached the forested area she had followed Naruto through the other day.

Hinata slowed and then stopped her walk, deep enough in the forest she felt that people would not hear her. She took in a long deep breathe, held it for two seconds, then let loose a shout, scaring several birds, ruffling leaves, but most importantly, releasing a great deal of her anger and sadness. Hinata took several breaths after her scream, her heart rate slowly returning to normal

"Feel better now?" Hinata spun at the sound of the voice behind her and entered her family Jyuuken fighting stance. She saw Remington leaning against a tree, his hands up in the air. "Woah, easy. Didn't mean to startle you."

"Gomen, Remington. I did not know you were there." Hinata blushed slightly as she lowered he stance and stared at the ground.

"No worries. When I waved at you on the beach you seemed a little down. Is everything…ok?" Remington cocked an eyebrow at her and stepped towards her.

"Yes. I…just have some stuff on my mind."

"Anything I can help with?"

"No, I do not think so."

"Whew, that's good." Hinata looked up at Remington quizzically. Remington waved his arms defensively at her. "No, no. What I meant was I'm not very good at this kind of thing. Randall prefers to do the old wise guy thing and help people. It's just never been my thing."

"I understand. Thank you for checking on me though. It was a nice gesture."

"No problem, what are friends for anyway? Still, while I am not the best at cheering people up, I can tell you what I like to do when I am feeling down." Hinata looked at Remington and nodded her head. "This path," Remington pointed down the dirt path Hinata had been walking, "leads to a fork in the road about a quarter mile down. The fork is kinda hard to see, but it's there. Take the left at the fork, it's a run down path, not used much. Follow it until it ends. Whenever I am feeling a little down and out, I just go there and my worries just melt away."

"I will consider it. Thank you, Remington."

"Anytime." Remington looked down at his watch and his eyes widened. "Crap, I'm gonna be late."

"Are you and Randall selling ramen at the tournament?"

"Yeah, he's going to be selling it from this cart he made. It's not great, but it moves without falling apart. Way better than the previous one he made."

Hinata laughed a little at the comment. "I'm sorry you didn't make it into the tournament."

Remington looked sheepishly at the ground, a slight grin on his face. "Yeah, well, still happens you know. Can't win them all. Thank you though. Anyway, I should get going. I'll see you later Hinata. Hope you work out whatever needs working out." Remington ran back down the path towards the beach, his black cloak flapping in the wind. Hinata waved at the young man's back before turning and walking down the path once more.

Hinata's mind tried to forget about Naruto and Sakura, instead focusing on the peaceful nature around her. She watched as butterflies flew in the air, a rabbit ran across the path ahead of her, the sound of birds in the trees. Before she knew it she has arrived at the fork. _'If you can even really call it that,'_ she thought. The path obviously turned to the right. To the left was what may have been a trail once, but it had been overgrown with grass, tree roots, snaking through it.

Hinata debated with herself for several minutes before taking that first step down the left path, accepting Remington's advice. Several small animals scurried out of her way, frightened of the intruder in their turf. Hinata carefully ducked low hanging branches, avoid several muddy pools of water, and foot tangling roots from the trees. She found herself beginning to doubt whether or not to turn back when she heard a very faint sound.

She paused and strained her ears. The sound reminded her of moving water. _'Is there a stream up ahead?_' Hinata wondered and continued on the trail. As she moved forward slowly the sound began to increase in volume. After about ten minutes Hinata was forced to stop as the trail ended suddenly in front of a large concrete wall. She could tell the source of the noise was coming from behind the wall, now accompanied by the sound of splashing and voices.

Hinata leapt into the nearest tree and made her way to the top so she could see over the wall. As she reached near the top of the tree the wall ended and afforded her a few behind the wall. Many women were relaxing in several pools of hot water, evident by the steam. Some wore towels about their bodies whilst others wore nothing at all. _'This is a hot spring, but I only see women here. But…Remington said he comes here when he feels unhappy. He couldn't mean he…no. Is he a peeper?'_

A rustling of leaves in a nearby tree followed by a series of chuckles put Hinata on alert. She activated her Byakugan and looked around her. She saw, nestled in one of the braches, hidden behind a genjutsu, and white haired man, in wooden sandals. '_He's peeping on those women down there. I'll show him.'_ Hinata leapt from her tree and aimed her foot at the pervert. She connected with the man's head and sent him falling from his branch.

To her amazement the man quickly recovered from her attack, grabbing a passing branch and halting his fall. He looked down before releasing his hold and landed expertly on the ground. Hinata jumped down from her tree and landed behind the peeper, unleashing a series of Jyuuken strikes as soon as she landed. The man dodged her strikes masterfully, as though he knew how she would attack. Hinata gritted her teeth in mild frustration and stepped up her tempo, determined to get in a good shot on the pervert.

The man quickly dropped to the ground and kicked his leg out, taking Hinata's foot from beneath her, causing her to tumble, but not before she landed a Jyuuken strike into the man's upper left arm, locking it in place. The peeper leapt away from Hinata as the girl quickly rose back to her feet, ready to begin attacking again. The man began to laugh as turned to look the girl in the face, using his right hand to move his hair out of the way. "I wouldn't expect anything less from Hiashi's daughter."

"Jiraiya-sama?" Hinata was shocked to see The Frog Hermit, and quickly bowed to him. "I am so sorry. I did not realize it was you. Please, forgive me."

Jiraiya waved the girls apologies away and walked towards her. "Don't trouble yourself over it. A simple misunderstanding that is all." Jiraiya kept working on his paralyzed arm, trying to get it to move again. "Good hit by the way."

"Umm, thank you, Jiraiya-sama. May I ask, what you were doing up there? I only attacked because it looked like you were peeping on those women."

"What? I most certainly was not. I was busy conducting field research for my novel and working on perfecting my surveillance technique. I think it worked rather well."

"Hai, I would not have been able to see you if it weren't for my Byakugan."

"Well, good then. I would hate to think you could just see me plain as day."

"No, no, you were very well hidden, but you did…laugh a little. That tipped me off that you were there at all."

"Really? Damn, need to learn to keep it in the head." Jiraiya tapped his head as he spoke. "Oh well. So, what brings you to this neck of the woods anyway Hinata?"

"Remington said that he comes here when he needs to clear his head and recommended it to me too."

"Needed to clear your head eh? Did that foolish pupil of mine do something stupid again?"

"No, not really." Hinata looked at the ground and sighed, her emotions finally getting the best of her, she had to talk to Jiraiya. "Yes. L-last night, after we went to karaoke I went to talk to Naruto and apologize for fainting…again. B-but then…then I saw him and S-Sakura together and…and…" A tear leaked from the side of Hinata's eye, the memory of last night painful.

"Hey now, come on." Jiraiya knelt down next to the girl and wiped away her tear. A pervert he may be, but a good man at heart too. "Listen, you have nothing to be sad about. Nothing happened between Naruto and Sakura. Trust me."

"But how can you know?" Hinata looked up at the frog hermit, pleading with him to make it better.

"At least now I know who was looking in the door." Hinata looked at him quizzically, not understanding what he was talking about. "Did you ever stop to wonder why the hotel room door was left open?"

Hinata shook her head. "I-I just thought it was left open by accident."

"No, you happened along as I was done checking up on my wayward pupil. Okay, what I am about to tell you is between you and me, no one else, deal?" Hinata sniffled and nodded, curious about what Jiraiya was getting at. "Ever since Sasuke left the village Sakura has had troubles. It started with just nightmare, but they increased in intensity. Tsunade gave her some medicine to help her sleep and stop her from dreaming, but apparently she is developing a slight resistance to them. Last night Naruto helped to comfort his teammate. Nothing more came of it."

"R-really?"

"Really. Now, if he didn't care for his teammates and friends and do everything in his power to make them feel better, would he be the ninja we know and like?"

"No, not at all. Nartuo always tries his hardest at everything he does. He would never let a friend down."

"Exactly. So cheer up, the war isn't over yet." Hinata sniffled once more and began to smile as that glimmer of hope appeared once more.

"Thank you Jiraiya-sama."

"Hahaha, no problem. Say, shouldn't you be on your way to the tournament? The first round should have started by now."

"You are right. What about you though?"

"I have some more surveillance work to do." Jiraiya struck a pose and looked towards the sky. "The life of a shinobi is difficult, but I will persevere."

"You truly are amazing, Jiraiya-sama."

"I know. Now get going. I know that blonde could use another pretty cheerleader." Hinata made a quick bow to Jiraiya and bound off into the forest. "And tell him to keep clean!" Jiraiya worked his arm again, finally regaining full use of it. "Nice girl, a little naive though. Now, back to my…surveillance."

Hinata quickly rushed through the forest, leaping nimbly from tree to tree. Finally Hinata arrived back at the main path, and with one last leap from her tree she landed on the dirt road, startling a couple walking along it. She rushed down the path and onto the beach. She saw a closed sign hanging from Randall and Remington shack as she sped from the beach into the streets. She found her progress slowed as the crowd was packed tight on the street.

Tired of waiting Hinata leapt to the nearest building and began to run sideways along the outer wall, several people stopping to gawk at the purple haired streak above them. Hinata pushed her legs faster, the strain beginning to hurt, but she refused to slow, not wanting to risk missing Naruto's match. Finally she arrived at the entrance to the arena and stopped to catch her breath.

"Good morning Miss Hinata." Hinata turned to see Randall behind a pushcart with a picture of Naruto eating ramen posted above it.

"Good morning, Randall-san. I like your cart." Randall beamed at her.

"Thank you. It is just a simple genjutsu, but I like it. Business has been booming ever since Naruto allowed me to use his image. That Naruto is quite a guy, you know. I offered him free ramen in order to use his image, but he declined my offer." Hinata looked at Randall with a very confused expression on her face.

'_What could make Naruto pass up on free ramen?'_

"Instead he had me agree to donate a portion of my profits to the orphans in Konoha. I am very proud of him for that."

"Naruto has always been very kind, helping people whenever he could."

"I don't doubt it. Say, why aren't you inside with your friends? They went in nearly an hour ago. You better hurry the second match is probably close to ***WHEEETTT*** finishing. Better get in like quick. It's gonna take some time to get in." Hinata turned to see the line Randall indicated and began to despair.

Hinata waved goodbye to Randall and got in line. Slowly the line dragged forward, a step every ten seconds or so. Hinata began to fidget as she worried whether she had missed Naruto's match or not. Her fingers worked nervously as she finally got under the roof of the building. She could faintly hear the announcer but could not be sure who was fighting. Hinata's spirits rose as the turnstile finally came into sight. She anxiously hopped from foot to foot, wishing the people in front of her would move faster. Finally Hinata was next for the turnstile, but her hopes sank as the attendant spoke.

"Ticket please." Hinata's eyes widened as her mind replayed her day, she had left her ticket back at the hotel, too depressed to grab it. The attendant asked again, "Ticket please."

"Hurry up, up there. Some of us are in a hurry."

Hinata feverishly searched her pockets, hoping that a ticket would appear in them. Suddenly she saw a hand holding a ticket thrust in front of her to the attendant.

"Here is her ticket sir, she seemed to have dropped it." Hinata turned and saw Randall, his little cart behind him holding the ticket out. The attendant took the ticket, tore off his part and handed it back to Hinata who moved through the turnstile. She stepped off to the side, out of everyone else's way and spoke to Randall.

"I do not know what to say."

"I always go with thanks personally, but you know, that's just me."

"Of course, thank you very much, but why? Were you not going to see the matches?"

"I thought about it, but I think I'll keep selling Ramen for today. Business is good." He waved his arm to the side to indicate the line and Hinata saw many of the patrons slurping down a small bowl of noodles. "Besides, you should be with your friends. They could use your support, I am sure."

"Thank Randall-san. How can I repay you though?"

"Worry about that later. I'll think of something. For now, go and have fun. And cheer for Naruto for me."

"I will, thank you." Hinata did a quick bow, turned and walked briskly down the hall. The hall opened up to the stands filled with people. She walked to the nearest rail and looked down in the arena. She saw Hyouuryusha and Hiro Tsubaru in the arena. The two combatants looked tired as the swung punches and delivered kicks at each other. Hinata turned her attention away from the two fighters and began to look through the crowd for her friends but was overwhelmed by the sheer number of people in the building.

"Hinata-sama?" Hinata spun around and saw Neji standing one level below carrying a tray filled with food and drinks.

"Neji-kun. I'll be right there." Hinata found the nearest set of stairs and descended them. She met back with Neji, glad to see her cousin. "Do you know where everyone else is?"

"Yes, they sent me to go and retrieve the refreshments." He indicated the box he was holding.

"Would you like some help?"

"Thank you, but I have it. Lets hurry back to the others. They were beginning to worry about you." Neji lead the way back to the stands that the Konoha nin shared. She was surprised to she they were right above the entrance to the red square. As the two Hyuuga neared the seats Ino turned and saw them.

"Look, Neji's back, and he found Hinata. Such a good cousin." Shikamaru and Sakura looked at the two as they joined their comrades, Neji taking a seat at the end next to Shikamaru. Ino and Sakura waved Hinata to a seat in between the two of them. Hinata thanked the two of them and sat down as Neji began to pass down the food and drinks.

"Did I miss Naruto's match?"

"No, but you did miss Shino's fight." Hinata looked down sadly, regretting letting her own petty problems stop her from cheering her teammate on. "Hey, don't worry," Sakura continued, "he won. The last match was kinda dull, Tsurichiro just kept running away the whole time. It was really pathetic. Then he went and got that lucky kick to Kanaho's face. This match has been very interesting though."

Hinata looked down into the arena and saw that the two fighters were still going at each other, but their movements were much slower, obviously very tired by now. Hiro threw a punch and over extended himself, leaving a wide opening for Hyouuryusha, which he took. He slammed his elbow into Hiro's face, breaking the nose before kicking him in the stomach. Hiro stumbled backwards and looked up in time to receive an uppercut from Hyouuryusha, sending the man falling backwards, out cold. The announcer called out the time before declaring Hyouuryusha the victor.

Hyouuryusha limped slightly as he walked back towards the blue entrance, the crowd cheering him on. The Konoha nin clapped as the young fighter departed. "Alright, ladies and gentlemen, we will take a five minute break before the next match will start. But, I am warning you now, you may not want to risk missing the next match."

"So, Hinata, what took you so long?" Sakura turned as she spoke to the opal eyed girl.

"W-well, I went to do some…sight seeing, and Remington told m-me about an interesting spot t-to investigate." Hinata stuttered as she spoke, not used to hiding information from her friends. She hated to lie, but she did not want everyone to know she had almost ran away. "There was an open air bath that you might be interested in trying later. And well, I lost track of time. I came as quick as I could when I realized what time it was."

"Eh, it happens you know. I remember once I got so busy deciding what clothes to were that I got to class two hours late."

"Guilty." Ino chimed in. "Still, you missed a very interesting match with Shino. He's more resourceful than I had originally thought."

"Shino-kun is very smart and talented. He has been a major factor in the success of our team's missions. I hope he's not upset that I missed his match."

"Even if he was, how could you tell?" Sakura joked, making her face go all serious and imitating straightening a pair of shades on her face. Hinata and Ino laughed, Shikamaru and Neji joining in. A loud gong filled the arena and the lights flickered once, drawing everyone's attention.

"Ladies and gentlemen. I ask you to put your hands together for our next two contestants. First, in the red square, you know him, you love him, you use his bridge, the one and only NARUTO UZUMAKI!!!" Hinata and Sakura cheered and clapped as the blonde youth made his appearance. Hinata laughed as she watched her favorite blonde run a lap around the outside of the arena, waving at the crowd as he went.

Naruto ran up the stairs leading to his starting square and made a set of clones that leapt from the arena into the stands. The clones ran around the stands, posing for pictures, shaking hands, and slamming high fives to the fans. As one of the Naruto clones passed his friends he winked at the girls. After a minute Naruto returned his clones to the ether they had come from.

The announcer cleared his throat and continued, "And in the blue square, the son of the Traveling Monk Toshiro, The Speed Demon, The Wind Runner, Kazuama Shingami." The crowd cheered in excitement that two big league fighters had been pitted against each other. Sakura and Ino booed Kazuama as he stepped onto the stage.

. "Now, do both the contestants remember the rules?" Naruto and Kazuama nodded. "Excellent. Naruto, are you ready?"

"Ready!" Naruto shouted and assumed his fighting stance.

"Kazuama, are you ready?" Kazuama merely nodded and readied his stance. "OK, BEGIN!"

_**So ends the latest chapter in Naruto: Wave Vacation. I hope you enjoyed it. I am hoping to have the next chapter ready in about a month or so, but unfortunately my muse is setting my up to write a different story. I will try and divide my time evenly between the two. So keep an eye our for the next chapter: In Door Pool Party and for the first chapter of my next fic: Even Now.**_


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